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Marj Halperin reports on the new "Children's Room" for kids who visit Chicago's family court. The children are anxiously awaiting the outcome of their custody, abuse, and foster care hearings, and while they wait they are often calmed by hands-on-art activities, live performances, and special phones where they can role-play about their fears with privacy.

Noah talks with Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington. She was a lead witness for the plaintiffs in the same-sex marriage discrimination suit in Hawaii that was decided yesterday. They talk about the demographics of same-sex unions, and she tells stories about the motivations for marriage, impediments to marriage, and rituals being used in same-sex marriage ceremonies.

by the resort of Vail to double in size by buying up three nearby mountain ski regions in Colorado, giving it 43 percent of the state ski business. This worries competing resorts as well as skiers who suspect it might mean monopoly pricing.

Veta Christy reports on a decision by the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power plant to close permanently. The nation's second oldest reactor was shut down in July due to safety concerns, but was scheduled to run for another 10 years. Analysts say the shutdown could signal big changes for the nation's utilities.

Robert talks with Charles Dick, researcher at the Conflict Studies Research Centre in England, about the state of the Russian Army. Dick's report is titled "A Bear Without Claws: The Russian Army in the Nineties." Dick says that while the Soviet Army was a relatively effective force, the Russian Army is corrupt and ill-prepared for crisis. Dick says severe hazing is endemic in the Russian Army, and an estimated three to four thousand servicemen die annually from non-combat causes. The article is published in a journal called "Geopolitique."

the Pope and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The Department of Energy is announcing a two-step plan to get rid of the nation's stockpile of plutonium waste. About 50 tons of the highly radioactive material have accumulated during the making of atomic bombs, weapons that are now being dismantled. NPR's Richard Harris reports on the government's plan to bury part of the waste and to combine the rest of it in fuel used by commercial nuclear plants.

For the first time in Russian history, voters used a referendum election to decide their future. NPR's Andy Bowers reports that they used the referendum ballot to stop plans for a Cerhnobyl-style nuclear power plant. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry had wanted to finish a plant in Kostroma, 250 miles northeast of Moscow. Residents turned it down by a nine-to-one margin.

NPR's Martha Raddatz reports that a number of former military officials are waging a high-profile campaign to pressure the United States to seek the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Retired Air Force General George Lee Butler today called for such a policy and said that nuclear weapons are costly, dangerous and indefensible. He had been the commander of the U.S. nuclear arsenal before retiring. Sixty generals and admirals from around the world are expected to release a statement tomorrow also calling for the reduction of nuclear arms.

on TV and radio advertising. Many are concerned that the move will only encourage teens to switch from drinking beer and wine to drinking distilled liquor.

NPR's Martha Raddatz reports that President Clinton today announced his choices for a new national security team, nominating Republican Senator William Cohen of Maine as defense secretary and U.N. ambassador Madeleine Albright as the nation's first female secretary of state. He also named his national security advisor, Anthony Lake, to head the CIA and has asked Lake's deputy, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, to fill Lake's job. They were the first of several announced cabinet changes expected for the second Clinton administration.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports on the intense political crisis gripping Zaire, one of Africa's largest nations. A rebellion which began several weeks ago in the east of the country is steadily spreading, and Zaire's underpaid and poorly disciplined army is putting up very little resistance. To compound the problem, President Mobutu Sese Seko (mo-BOO-too SAY-SAY SAY-koh) has been out of the country for months, as he recuperates from cancer surgery on the French Riviera.