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Richard Clarke, the former Bush adviser who has said the president's emphasis on Iraq undermined U.S. anti-terror efforts, says he welcomes a Republican suggestion to declassify documents from his days on the Bush team. Clarke says he wants to "stimulate the public debate" on how the U.S. government is doing in the war on terrorism. NPR's Libby Lewis reports.

In the third and final story in our series profiling California's Inland Empire, NPR's Scott Horsley reports that this sprawling region east of Los Angeles and north of San Diego has one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation. Affordable housing has drawn commuters from the coast, who in turn attracted small businesses. Then good highways and railroads turned the Inland Empire into a major distribution center. Now the question is whether it can climb the economic ladder by attracting high-paying jobs.

His new memoir is called When I was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School. As a teenager, Kashner left his comfortable suburban life on Long Island, N.Y. and became the first student to attend the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colo. Kasher's teachers were the great beat writers William Burroughs, Allan Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Kerouac. Kashner is also the author of a novel, Sinatraland, as well as three non-fiction books. He is a regular contributor to Vanity Fair.

The Senate approves legislation making it a separate crime to kill or injure a fetus while committing a federal crime against a pregnant woman. Opponents denounce the bill as an effort to undermine abortion rights by recognizing a fetus as a person. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and NPR's Andrea Seabrook.

His new novel is Hard Revolution. It's set in Washington, D.C. in 1968, during the riots sparked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Pelecanos is also the author of Right as Rain, Soul Circus, Hell to Pay, Sweet Forever, King Suckerman, The Big Blowdown, Down By the River Where Dead Men Go, Shoedog, Nick's Trip and A Firing Offense. (This interview was originally broadcast on Aug. 25, 1998.)

Former counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke gives testimony to the commission investigating U.S. policies before the Sept. 11 attacks, saying George W. Bush's administration did not give high priority to terrorist threats in its first seven months despite his urgings. Hear NPR's Pam Fessler, NPR's Robert Siegel and former National Security Agency head Lt. Gen. William Odom.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu tells about an opera called Violet Fire, based on the life of pioneering inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla lived from 1856 to 1943. While he has been relegated to obscurity, Tesla helped create the bedrock of modern technology.

NPR's Martin Kaste continues Morning Edition's week-long series on Latin American cities with a report on the perennial housing shortage in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In Latin America's biggest megalopolis, as many as 3 million of the estimated 18 million residents cannot find or afford housing. So, they take over abandoned buildings and set up outdoor camps.

The National Urban League releases its annual State of Black America report, which measures racial disparity in the United States. The most noticeable differences are in the areas of home ownership and economic parity -- black earning power is about 73 percent that of whites. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and Robert Bowser, mayor of East Orange, N.J.

In the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, more than 40 people were killed in a series of explosions, suicide bombings and gunbattles involving suspected militants from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The group reportedly has ties with al-Qaeda. Hear NPR's Howard Berkes and Martha Brill Olcott of the Carnegie Endowment.