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A portrait of seediness and forgetfulness in the biggest little city in the world. Andrei Codrescu returns to the town where five years ago he was snowed in. Codrescu claims mountain lions came down to the town back then, but finds people don't remember that detail.

Reaction from around the country to the dips in the stock market.

A senior Pacific Fleet captain who was on board the U.S. submarine Greeneville the day it sank a Japanese fishing trawler off the shore of Hawaii was back on the stand today in the Navy's court of inquiry into the incident. The captain was expected to say the civilians on board did not interfere with the sub's crew and procedures. Noah Adams talks with NPR's Andy Bowers, who is covering the trial.

Seattle has become one of the busiest places outside of Los Angeles for recording film scores. Session recordings made by some of the musicians from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra are cutting into a business once dominated by L.A. session musicians. The main reason is money -- film producers want to save money, and groups like the Seattle musicians help cut costs. Marcie Sillman of member station KUOW reports that musicians, some of whom are members of the Seattle Symphony recorded 100 soundtracks last year. Last month, they played 26 soundtrack jobs.

NPR's Barbara Bradley reports that the recent FBI spy scandal has caused the agency to consider testing its employees more often with polygraphs. The benefit is that a spy has less chance to pass information to the enemy. The cost is that a false-positive rate of about 15 percent can ruin the lives of innocent people.

NPR's Sarah Chayes reports from Paris that a high-profile French corruption trial was thrown into disarray today when a key defendant refused to testify. The defendant -- former oil executive Alfred Sirvan -- once boasted he had enough compromising information about former government officials "to blow the republic sky high." But when he appeared in court, he refused to answer any questions. Sirven's lawyers said he will talk -- but only after all related investigations into the corruption scandal are completed. Among the Sirven's co-defendants is former French foreign minister Roland Dumas.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Jerusalem reports on two members of the new Israeli government who are known for their hard-line views. One has advocated expelling Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza while the other has suggested Israel could attack Tehran or the Aswan High Dam in Egypt.

Janet Heimlich reports that even though foot-and-mouth disease has not appeared in the United States since 1929, many livestock-producing states are telling ranchers to take precautions. Texas animal health officials are worried that the disease could be brought in by travelers, particularly in contaminated meat. They are telling ranchers to isolate new animals for a few days, disinfect the boots of visitors from abroad, and watch their animals for symptoms. Not all ranchers are paying attention.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average has not declined at the same rapid clip as the battered Nasdaq during the recent stock downturn. But today the Dow fell very sharply and slipped below the 10,000 mark for the first time in five months, fresh evidence that pessimism about stocks is increasingly broad and deep.

NPR's David Welna reports on the partisan debate raging on Capitol Hill over the turmoil in the stock market and what that could mean for President Bush's tax reduction program. Republicans insist that if the economy is faltering, tax cuts need to be implemented without delay. Democrats argue that the falling stock prices mean it would be too risky to pass a 10-year tax cut plan, given the fact that there is no way to know whether the administration's long-range projections on the economy are accurate.

W.G. Snuffy Walden's new CD is called music by.... It's a collection of themes and incidental music that he's written for television. Walden's music has appeared on Felicity, Rosanne, Once and Again and Thirtysomething. His latest score is the theme to NBC's The West Wing. Noah Adams talks with Walden about how he writes music for TV and the concept behind the West Wing theme.

As part of NPR's ongoing series on how to get AIDS drugs to the developing world, NPR's Michael Sullivan reports on the AIDS situation in India. India has the world's largest number of people infected with the AIDS virus -- more than 4 million are infected by the most conservative estimates. But in a population of nearly 1 billion, AIDS takes a back seat to other pressing health concerns. Indeed, there is little discussion in India about how to get AIDS treatments to those who need them, unlike the current debates now going on in Africa. And in India, even basic prevention efforts face major cultural hurdles.