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Scott Simon considers the sharp divide in Los Angeles between rich and poor. He then visits a Korean-American liquor store owner, just north of Watts. Fires and looting closed many liquor stores in 1992. Government and community efforts have attempted to convert many of those liquor stores into different kinds of businesses. Scott also looks at efforts of the Los Angeles Police Department to become more community friendly.

Some of the changes are subtle, but priests say life around their churches has changed amid the child sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed the U.S. Catholic church. On Morning Edition, NPR's Susan Stamberg interviews two pastors about their day-to-day experiences.

Director, co-writer Stacy Peralta of the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. The film is about the community of skateboarders in California in the 1970s who originated extreme skateboarding. They did so in rundown urban beach neighborhood near Santa Monica and Venice called Dogtown. They became international stars. Peralta was one of the Z-boys and is considered one of the founding fathers of modern skateboarding. The film won the Audience Award and Directors Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Theres also a companion book, Dogtown The Legend of the Z-Boys (Burning Flags Press). Their website is www.zboys.com.

This weekend, Luciano Pavarotti wraps up his stint at The Met in Puccini's Tosca. Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon talks with critic David Patrick Stearns about whether the great tenor will retire.

Aboard the International Space Station this week are five astronauts and one "space flight participant" -- to use NASA's words. Mark Shuttleworth is the world's second space tourist. The 28-year-old South African Internet businessman is paying $20 million for the trip. Advocates of space tourism see Shuttleworth's voyage as the long-overdue dawning of a new era. For All Things Considered, David Kestenbaum reports.

Host Susan Stamberg talks with Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan about the Sundance Film Festival. The two discuss the highlights of this year's festival as well as the validity of complaints that the event has become too commercial.

Monica is normal in every way -- except she can't carry a tune to save her life. Canadian researchers says Monica's extreme case of amusia is helping them discover why people are tone deaf.

Independent producer Joe Richman and All Things Considered begin a weekly series on jobs that are slowly disappearing. Today we meet Walter Backerman, one of the last seltzer delivery men who still make the rounds to New York City residents. Backerman's father was a seltzer man. So was his grandfather. And when he shows up at the doors of his customer's homes, to many, he represents a connection to a time gone by.

NPR's Howard Berkes zips down the icy Olympic bobsled track to experience the thrill of athletes competing in next month's winter games in Salt Lake City. Hear his story on All Things Considered.

More than two decades of warfare and chaos in Afghanistan have given way to hopes of rebuilding. In the former Taliban capital, NPR's Steve Inskeep finds dreams of reconstruction amid the rubble of intricate, arch-bedecked buildings.