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NPR's Scott Horsley reports on a commercial database that keeps track of millions of Americans who have bounced checks. More than 85-thousand bank branches subscribe to the database, called Chexsystem, and use it to screen potential customers. But critics say a single bad check can place someone's name on the database, and once listed, it's unlikely they'll be able to open an account for up to five years.

ROGER EBERT interviews WILLEM DAFOE. This is a special broadcast of a live event that took place at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Ebert explores Dafoe's 17-year career of more than 40 films, including his upcoming film, "Shadow of the Vampire." Dafoe's films include "The Last Temptation of Christ," "Affliction," "The English Patient," and "Platoon."Jazz critic KEVIN WHITEHEAD reviews "Traveler's Tales" (Omnitone) the new recording by Marty Ehrlich.12:58:30 NEXT SHOW PROMO (:29) PROMO COPY On the next Fresh Air. . . . volcanologist DAN MILLER. He was part of a team of geologists who predicted the eruption of Mt. St. Helens 20 years ago. Now he travels to hot spots around the world assessing the behavior of waking volcanos. He's featured in the new book "Volcano Cowboys." Also -- the film critic grills the actor. ROGER EBERT talks with WILLEM DAFOE. We present a special interview that took place at this year's Cannes Film Festival. That and more coming up on the next Fresh Air.

Host Jacki Lyden speaks with fire fighter Tim Duck about the fires in the West. Duck has been fighting the fires in the Salmon Challis National Forest in Idaho where U.S. Marines have recently joined the battle.

Ten years ago this month Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, leading ultimately to the Persian Gulf War. Jacki speaks to Middle East scholar Shibley Telhami about the legacy of the invasion, and the impact sanctions and a strengthened Saddam Hussein have on the people of Iraq.

Jacki talks with George Hudler, professor of Plant Pathology at Cornell University, about a giant fungus. The fungus, which looks like a giant mushroom, is spreading across a forest in Eastern Oregon. It is thought to be the largest living organism in the world.

Linda talks to Abe Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in New York City, about Al Gore's choice of Senator Joseph Lieberman for the Vice Presidential slot on the Democratic presidential ticket. Lieberman is an orthodox Jew, and Foxman discusses what this choice means for the American Jewish community.

NPR's Eric Weiner reports that the President of Indonesia used his state-of-the nation speech today to apologize for his performance in his first 10 months in office. Abdul Rahman Wahid has been under intense criticism for failure to cope with the country's severe economic problems, ethnic and religious violence, and corruption at a level that frightens away foreign investment. Some lawmakers have talked of impeachment, but the general consensus seems to be that Indonesia has spent the last few years in political turmoil and that the new president should be given more time to solve problems.

A note on a lawsuit stemming from the use of a picture of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara in a vodka advertising campaign. Alberto Diaz Gutierrez, who took the photo in 1965, still lives in Cuba, and has filed suit against the British ad company representing Smirnoff Vodka for the use of the picture.

NPR's Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem on the uproar caused by an orthodox rabbi's derogatory remarks about Arabs, and about Jews who died in the Holocaust. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the leader of Israel's ultra-orthodox Shas party , has been busily trying to backtrack on his charges over the weekend that Arabs were unfit to live with or near and that the Jews who died in the holocaust were "reincarnated sinners," or Jews whose secular ways had offended God. In one single sermon he offended both Israelis and Arabs. Yosef's part was until recently a part of the governing coalition.

Beth Fertig of member station WNYC reports on New Jersey's new law regulating Halal foods - that is, foods that are lawful according to Islamic tradition. The law reflects a growing Muslim population in New Jersey and throughout the U.S.

NPR's Tovia Smith profiles the man Al Gore has asked to join him on the Democratic ticket. Joseph Lieberman began life as the son of a liquor store owner who never went to college. But he studied hard, got a scholarship to Yale and then attended law school there. After that it was the state legislature, the state attorney general's office and an upset win over a senior Republican senator in 1988. Now, thanks to his reputation for religious commitment and moral fiber, Lieberman suddenly finds himself on the national stage.

One of the last surviving members of Britain's greatest generation of actors has died. Sir Alec Guinness the man of a thousand faces, died at the age of 86 after a career that spanned more than 60 years.