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NPR's Peter Overby reports that a ruling today by the Supreme Court appeared to open the way for a whole new category of campaign spending by political parties on congressional campaigns. The court said the Federal Election Commission was wrong when it cited the Colorado Republican Party for exceeding federal spending limits after it spent $15,000 on radio ads in 1986 against a Democratic Senate candidate. Such expenditures, as long as they are made independently of a particular candidate's campaign, should not be limited, the court said.

1: Film director BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI. His new film is "Stealing Beauty". It's the first time in 15 years that he has worked in his native country, Italy. At the age of 20, he began his career working for filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini and wrote his first screenplay the next year. In 1973, BERTOLUCCI achieved international, critical and commercial success with the release of the controversial "Last Tango in Paris" with Marlon Brando. "Stealing Beauty" stars Liv Tyler as a young woman who travels to Tuscany to spend the summer searching for romance and answers about the mother who abandoned her.

The General Accounting Office released a study today that public school buildings and facilities throughout the country are in disrepair. The problems include plumbing, heating and crumbling foundations. NPR's Cheryl Devall reports that local school districts are calling for more federal and state funding to help solve these problems.

President Clinton announced his support today for a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of crime victims. A spokesman says Mr. Clinton is not endorsing any specific proposal, but the general idea of such an amendment. The probable Republican presidential nominee, Bob Dole, already has come out in favor of a victims' rights amendment. The version Dole is supporting would make sure crime victims are notified of court proceedings, given the chance to be heard on plea bargains and sentencing, and informed if the offender escapes or is released from jail. NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports.

NPR's Ted Clark reports that yesterday's bombing reveals undercurrents of anti-Americanism in Saudi Arabia and resentment toward the government there. Though the opposition is fuelled by militant Islam to some degree, analysts say that Saudi Arabia remains stable, though the opposition will have to be managed carefully if the country is to remain stable.

Edmund Roy reports that the largest party in the Indian parliament has resigned, unable to form a coalition. The United Front -- a coalition of lower caste and left-leaning parties -- is now trying to form a government to run the world's largest democracy.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on the Senate's vote to reconfirm Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, amid criticism by some Senate Democrats that Greenspan has waged a stingy monetary policy that they say has held back economic growth.

a Democrat opposed to abortion. He want the anti-abortion position reflection in the Democratic party platform.

The Supreme Court has ruled against the football players union, which was trying to sue the National Football League. The justices say the players may not sue on anti-trust grounds if the league imposes certain salary levels, after a collective bargaining impasse. The court says the players' recourse is to the National Labor Relations Board, not the federal courts. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports that the ruling affects all unionized workers, not just the football players.

s decision-making style, and how he's likely to apply it to some major decisions between now and the Republican convention in August.

have reached an out-of-court settlement under which the state no longer will shackle prisoners together on chain gangs. The Southern Poverty Law Center had sued Alabama in federal court, charging the practice violated the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Under the agreement, Alabama will continue to use prisoners on road crews, and their ankles will be shackled together, but they won't be chained to other inmates.

on the damage that flooding has done to parts of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Some residents say overdevelopment has contributed to the problem.