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NPR's Liane Hansen talks with Los Angeles Times Washington bureau chief Doyle McManus about this past week's positive news on the jobs front, the intensifying race between Sen. John Kerry and President George Bush, and the coming testimony by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice before the Sept. 11 commission.

It's not uncommon for presidential budgets of either party to be declared dead on arrival when they hit Capitol Hill. Is this exercise really about budgets or about politics?

Russian voters go to the polls to choose a president on Sunday, June 16th. The two front-runners are President Boris Yeltsin and the leader of the Communists, Gennady Zyuganov ((gen-NAH-dee zyoo-GAHN-off)). Neither is expected to win outright and will probably face each other in a run-off July 7th. NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Moscow on the media campaign each candidate is waging...a campaign in which Yeltsin has a big advantage.

The nation's fiercest and most protracted environmental battles in recent years have centered on endangered species and the Endangered Species Act. Efforts to protect the Snail Darter, the Northern Spotted Owl and dozens of other plants and animals which are dwindling in number have placed environmentalists in opposition with industrial interests and landowners. The result is often years of litigation and solutions that satisfy no one. Government officials in California are trying a new approach; they're using the Endangered Species Act to create a process that brings the parties in conflict into a negotiation over their differences.

This has been a huge week in the world of politics. And it's worth noting that the major stories are unfolding less than three months before voters head to the polls for the midterm elections.

A new Congressional map is working its way through the North Carolina General Assembly, part of a nationwide fight over power in the U.S. House. We get analysis from Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper. Then, historian Tiya Miles talks about her book Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era.

Both campaigns want to claim momentum heading into the final days of the campaign. This is especially true in battleground states like Iowa, where enthusiasm and voter turnout can make all the difference. Momentum is a common political metaphor, but what does it really tell us?

Some Democrats might snicker at Mitt Romney's desire to be involved in the 2014 midterm election campaigns. While there are limits to his usefulness as a campaigner, he could have an upside for Republicans as a fundraiser.

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?

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was forced to cancel nearly $11 million in student loans after a national chain of for-profit colleges experienced…