To the Point

With 10 months left until the first Democratic voter goes to the poll, has it all come down to just three out of eight presidential candidates?  Why are Clinton, Obama and Edwards getting all the attention? What are the prospects for one of them suddenly falling behind or for a dark horse to burst from the pack?  Plus, FBI Director Robert Mueller admits to misusing its powers under the Patriot Act and, on Reporter's Notebook, ethics for robots.

President Bush is visiting Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico this week, carrying with him a complicated economic and trade agenda. But after keeping Latin American issues on the backburner for six years, can he effectively compete with rising radical leaders like Hugo Chávez?  Plus, House Democrats unveil their plan for a withdrawal from Iraq. On Reporter's Notebook, will President Bush grant Lewis Libby a pardon?  Marc Cooper guest hosts.

The firing of eight US Attorneys has raised questions about the Bush Justice Department and partisan politics. Did a Congressional hearing reveal why they were let go? Are routine personnel matters being "overblown?"  Plus, another Russian journalist has died mysteriously and, on Reporter's Notebook, in France, ordinary citizens can now be jailed for doing what journalists do all the time.

Lewis "Scooter" Libby's conviction is just the latest bad news for the Bush Administration.  Plus, the running scandal over treatment of combat veterans by the Veterans' Administration. 

The US and North Korea are talking today in New York amid new questions about US intelligence on North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. The US is updating its nuclear warheads. What's the message to other countries? Plus, Congress begins investigation into the sorry state of the Department of Veterans' Affairs and, on Reporter's Notebook, a gourmet dinner party featuring cloned beef. Would you accept an invitation?

The US and Britain are first in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and last among developed nations in taking care of their children. Is there a connection?  We talk about imperialism, the welfare state, history and contemporary realities. Plus, House Democrat Howard Berman on his plan to bring the troops home from Iraq and, on Reporter's Notebook, genetic research shows that the ancestors of presidential candidates owned slaves. The candidates are John McCain, John Edwards--and Barack Obama.

Wall Street is cutting its losses after another steep sell-off. There are mixed messages about the state of the economy.  What does China's stock market have to do with it?  Also, Pastor Ted Haggard has renewed a long-running controversy with implications for religion and politics.  Is homosexuality a treatable condition?  Is it nurture or nature?

To protect against a cancer-causing, sexually-transmitted virus, the Governor of Texas has ordered mandatory vaccination of young girls. We look at a moral and medical controversy that could spread to at least 20 other states.  Plus, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives a thumbs-up to the economy and, on Reporter's Notebook, the US will sit down with Iran and Syria in regional talks about Iraq.  Could that lead to diplomacy on other issues?

When they left on vacation a week ago, Democrats said they'd be back with tough measures to discourage the President from increasing troops in Iraq. Why isn't that happening after all?  In Iraq itself, will the new oil agreement unite a divided country?   On Reporter's Notebook, hundreds of millions of honeybees have turned up missing in 24 states from California to Pennsylvania, an ecological mystery that threatens $14 billion in food crops.

Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth is explicit about taking sides on global warming.  With a hero who uses torture, the TV show 24 sends a message of a different kind. Entertainment and propaganda.  Do audiences distinguish between truth, fiction and political argument?   Also, Vice President Dick Cheney travels to Pakistan and Afghanistan and, on Reporter's Notebook, civil rights leader Al Sharpton is linked by slave ancestors to one-time segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond.