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David D'Arcy reports on this year's Sundance Film Festival, widely regarded as the most prestigious showcase for independent films and documentaries, which opens tonight. One film features a handful of the 40,000 Cubans who left their island on rafts in the 1990s.

Today's transgenic (genetically modified) crops contain have been tinkered with in a relatively simple way. And there is no evidence that they pose any health risk. But scientists are now working on the much more complex modifications needed to enhance the nutritional value of food crop -- by increasing their vitamin content, for example. This could have unpredictable consequences. NPR's Eric Niiler reports.

In the new film About Schmidt, Kathy Bates plays Roberta Hertzel -- an aging hippie and free spirit. Jack Nicholson plays the repressed insurance salesman Warren Schmidt. In one scene Bates strips nude in front of Nicholson. It's the scene everyone is talking about. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Kathy Bates about the scene and about her career in film.

Sen. Lieberman (D-CT) was Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 presidential election. He and his wife have just written a memoir of the campaign, titled An Amazing Adventure: Joe and Hadassah's Personal Notes on the 2000 Campaign. On Monday, the third-term senator announced he would be running as a candidate for president in 2004.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports the Bush administration is going to court in support of three white university students who say their school uses racial quotas. The White House is accusing the University of Michigan of using quotas in deciding who is admitted. The university says its policy is constitutional, and that race is one of many factors it considers in its selection process. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress say after the racial remarks made by Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), now is not the time for the administration to challenge the factor of race in admissions.

The California Supreme Court adopts tougher standards on what constitutes forcible rape, defining it as continued sexual intercourse by a man after his female partner withdraws initial consent. NPR's Richard Gonzales reports.

The Bush administration prepares to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of three white students who have challenged the University of Michigan's admissions programs. The students allege the university uses a quota system that unfairly benefits minority applicants. Hear NPR's Don Gonyea and U-M Law School Dean Jeffrey Lehman.

Everyone who has ever pondered whether chicken wings serve a purpose beyond deep fat fryers and bleu cheese sauce will be bowled over by the apparent benefits of wing flapping in flightless birds. NPR's John Nielsen reports on a study in this week's Science magazine showing how true flight may have evolved from these beginnings.

They have collaborated on the new book Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. Patricia Due was a civil rights activist with CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and was part of the movement's landmark "jail-in." Protesters served time instead of paying a fine for the so-called crime of sitting at a Woolworth lunch counter. Patricia Due worked with many of the movement's great figures during the 1960s. Tananarive Due is a former features writer for The Miami Herald, and has written the novels The Black Rose, My Soul to Keep and The Living Blood.

U.N. weapons inspectors find 11 empty chemical warheads in an ammunition storage area in southern Iraq. They are said to be in excellent condition, but it's unclear if they've ever actually contained chemical agents. NPR's Kate Seelye reports.

Over the past decade the states have added safeguarding the environment to their to-do lists. Now, states struggle with the worst fiscal crisis in 50 years, and they're being forced to make tough choices and review priorities. Environmental protection moves pretty far down the list. NPR's Greg Allen reports.

Enormous deficits loom over the federal budget this year and next. The White House is pressing Senate Republicans to trim nearly $10 billion from spending bills approved last year when Democrats ran the Senate. Democrats respond that the president's proposed tax cuts need trimming -- not federal spending. NPR's David Welna reports.