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Since losing his bid to become the Republican party candidate for president last year, Arizona Senator John McCain has pushed ahead with his cry for campaign finance reform. McCain and Democrat Russell Feingold have been promised a March Senate debate on their campaign finance reform bill by Majority Leader Trent Lott. Lott has also promised to discourage filibusters of the bill. Filibusters killed the bill in the last two congressional sessions. Robert talks with the Arizona Senator about what it will take to win the battle this time.

NPR's David Welna reports on the first day of the 107th Congress. Republican Dennis Hastert has returned for a second term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. The vote, with 222 for Hastert and 206 for Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, was along party lines, except for two exceptions: Democrat James Traficant of Ohio, an outspoken and controversial maverick, fulfilled his promise and voted for Hastert. Gene Taylor, a conservative Democrat from Mississippi, voted not for Gephardt but for Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat. Two other House members voted "present." Other than that, it was a day of excitement, as many members brought their children onto the House floor.

Israel's Likud party holds a primary election Thursday. Opinion polls place Prime Minister Ariel Sharon well ahead of his rival, current foreign minister and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The winner of Thursday's primary is favored to win Israel's general election in January. More from NPR's Linda Gradstein.

The average American got quite a leg up yesterday -- at least according to politicians of both major political parties. When Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) declared his intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, he said he'd fight for regular people. And President Bush said he is thinking about all Americans in working on his economic stimulus package. Commentator Jake Tapper says that both politicians are good at seeming like regular guys - but he's not sure that a regular guy is really what voters want.

Investigative reporter Geoffrey Cain writes about China's use of sophisticated technology and a so-called predictive policing system designed to find people who harbor disloyalty toward the Chinese Communist Party.

The Senate Judiciary Committee votes 10-8 along party lines to approve President Bush's nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nomination now moves to the Senate floor, where a vote could come as early as Friday.

Schools in some parts of Britain are over 90 percent South Asian. After decades of derision, advocates of school integration are now likely to get their way. Britons are examining to what extent its multicultural policies have fostered ghettos and thus disenfranchised the Muslim youth it is trying to guide away from extremism. The introspection appears similar to recent events in the Netherlands, which culminated in an all-party report to parliament saying that its multicultural policies of the past three decades were a failure.

Silent film star Buster Keaton is always seen more than he is heard. But through our Quest for Sound phone line and listener Bob Borgen, we hear Keaton sing at a party. Also, NPR film critic Bob Mondello takes us back to the days of silent films and reminds us that there was a time when we weren't supposed to hear anything in the movies. July 30, 1999

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader calls for supporters to attend his rallies -- but to feel free to vote for Sen. John Kerry in November if the Bush-Kerry race is close. Nader, saying his campaign is meant to steer the Democratic Party toward a more progressive agenda, made his comments during a trip through the Midwest, where Kerry and Bush are in close competition for several states. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel.

As Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry prepares to accept his party's nomination Thursday, Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, formally becomes the Democrats' entry for vice president.