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Robert Siegel speaks with sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about the WBNA. The professional women's basketball league is in the midst of it's championship final series. The Houston Comets may win the title for the fourth straight year after defeating the New York Liberty last night to take the first game in the best of three series. This is the league's fourth year and while its growth may have reached a plateau, there's still a lot of enthusiasm for the game.

Film Director Arthur Penn. At the age of 77, he's just been hired as executive producer of the TV show Law and Order. The appointment is seen as a breakthrough for the elderly in Hollywood. Penn's films include Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man, The Miracle Worker, Alice's Restaurant and The Missouri Breaks. His film career lost steam in the 80s, and he went to Broadway. His shows included Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker.

Film critic Henry Sheehan reviews the new film, Bring it On.

Kate Seelye reports on parliamentary elections in Lebanon. Several Christian political parties are boycotting the elections, because they say Syria has too strong an influence on the outcome.

Scott talks with NPR's John Nielson about the controversy surrounding Japanese whaling research. Critics accuse Japan of using whaling research as an excuse to hunt whales, which are a popular delicacy. Japan argues that they have a right under international treaty to kill and study whales.

Scott Simon talks to John Crockett, who just translated from Italian a 19th Century book about British colonialism in New Zealand, which the British government suppressed, and then destroyed, when it was first published. The book, called History of New Zealand and Its Inhabitants is a scathing critique of the effects of British colonialism on the native Maori people. It was written by an Italian missionary named Dom Felice Vaggioli.

For more than thirty years photographer Mark PoKempner has been taking pictures of Chicago's legendary blues clubs. His new book Down at Theresa's: Chicago Blues is a visual artist's tribute to one city's musical legacy. Host Jacki Lyden tours some of Mark's favorite South Side clubs. (16:00) (Down at Theresa's - Chicago Blues: the Photographs of Mark PoKempner, by Wolfgang Schorlau; ISBN: 3791323008 (2000) For more information, check out our feature on "Down at Theresa".

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has announced it has arrested 15 suspected migrant smugglers since a new program was implemented several weeks ago to capture people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the country. Mark Moran of member station KJZZ reports.

Celeste Headlee of member station KNAU reports that Native American rights advocates are asking state and federal prisons to allow sweat lodges (a structure intended to house prayer ceremonies) to be built on prison grounds. Prisons in many states already have sweat lodges, but some states with large Native American inmate populations do not allow sweat lodges.

Scott talks with Ed Hula, editor of the independent electronic newsletter Around the Rings, about the problems Athens, Greece is having as it prepares to host the 2004 Olympic Games.

Microsoft Bill Gates made it to the finals of the American Contract Bridge League Summer Nationals, but he lost. Scott speaks with Paul Linxweiler, managing editor of the League's bridge bulletin.

Weiner: NPR's Eric Weiner reports Aborigines are expected to protest the upcoming Olympics in Sydney. Using the Olympic competition as a backdrop, they hope to publicize their civil rights movement.