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Commentator Daniel Ferri, who teaches sixth grade in Chicago, brings us a vignette from some of the first steps out from behind the curtain of childhood onto life's grand stage.

NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on a new trend in medicine -- using extreme treatments for diseases that aren't immediately life-threatening. We look at how doctors are using bone-marrow transplants and other treatments traditionally reserved for severe cancer cases in patients with diseases like arthritis and multiple sclerosis. It's a controversial approach and effectiveness studies are only now getting started. But it's helping some people return to normal, disease-free lives.

Alchemy in outer space? Not exactly. But a new theory about gold -- and some other heavy metals -- suggests they're created when two specific types of stars collide. Linda Wertheimer talks Stephen Rosswog, research associate in physics and astronomy at the University of Leicester, England.

Today, President Bush expressed his own regrets about Sunday's collision between an American reconnaissance plane and a Chinese fighter jet. And he shrugged off the budget setback dealt by the Senate yesterday. The budget process is a long and winding road, the president said. NPR's Don Gonyea reports from the White House.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from Maidstone, England, that a jury found Dutch truck driver Perry Wacker guilty of manslaughter today in the deaths of 58 illegal Chinese migrants. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Wacker transported the Chinese migrants in his truck on a ferry from Belgium to Dover last year.

Commentator Reynolds Price thinks back to the phrase "this week's play in front of last weeks sets." It's a phrase he remembers from reading Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

As the reconnaissance plane standoff continues, the Chinese government must take into account the opinions of its own people, even though the political voice of the masses is muted. The public mood is one of anger and disappointment at the United States. NPR's Rob Gifford samples opinion outside the U.S. embassy and in McDonalds in Beijing.

Robert Siegel talks with retired Lt. Gen. William E. Odom about how pilots are trained to behave when they are in the custody of another nation. Odom is former head of the National Security Agency, director of National Security Studies at the Hudson Institute, and adjunct professor of political science at Yale University.

Commentator Alfred Lubrano tells the story of how a Trenton, New Jersey church did battle with its rowdy next door neighbor, a notorious bar, to try to bring peace and quiet to its neighborhood.

Weekend Edition commentator and historian Douglas Brinkley is working with author Stephen Ambrose on a book about the Louisiana purchase. Brinkley recently rode in a helicopter over southern Mississippi, and offers his ruminations on the legend, lore, and allure of the Mississippi Delta.

Writer and actor Edward Bunker served almost twenty years in prison, starting at age 17. The books Bunker checked out of the prison library at San Quentin changed his life. He reads from his autobiography Education of a Felon: A Memoir, published by St. Martin's Press.

The name describes the band, and its sound. Frank talks with drummer Bill Summers and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield from Los Hombres Calientes, or, The Hot Men, a group that blends African musical traditions with home grown New Orleans jazz. This week, the eclectic band, which actually does include a female member, releases its third CD, Volume 3, New Congo Square, and the music will surely make you want to groove. (12:45) (NOTE: Volume 3, New Congo Square is available on Basin Street Rec