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The Pfizer drug company agrees to pay a $430 million fine and plead guilty to illegal marketing practices, U.S. prosecutors say. The unprecedented fine comes after the company admitted that its Warner-Lambert unit promoted Neurontin, an epilepsy drug, for several unapproved uses. The drug remains a top seller for Pfizer, with 2003 sales of $2.7 billion. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports.

Thomas Edison's music room went unused since the days when he was using it to record the famous at the turn of the century. Lately, some top names have been back there in West Orange, New Jersey, making modern-day wax cylinders, which use no microphone, no electricity.

In the second of our four-part series on managed health care, NPR's Patricia Neighmond takes a look at how a group of doctors in Southern California has banded together to take back control over medical decision-making from insurance companies. The doctors' new group practice grew out of frustration with a payment system that was permitting HMOs and other insurance companies to make decisions about when and how a patient would receive medical care. Analysts say the group is a model for other doctors who want to practice cost-efficient medicine and provide patients with top-quality care.

NPR's Melissa Block is in Tallahassee, where the Bush campaign won a potentially significant legal victory early today. A circuit judge reaffirmed the decision of Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State and a Republican, which said Harris could certify the state's vote count tomorrow without having to include the results of hand recounts that are going on in several counties. Then late in the day the Florida Supreme Court delayed any certiification of the election by the Florida Secretary of State. The manual recounts have been going on in predominantly Democratic counties, and the Gore camp hoped that numbers coming out of those counties would put the Vice President over the top in the key battle for Florida's 25 electoral votes. Democrats said they will appeal the ruling in state Supreme Court.

John Kerry's smile and the Bush-Cheney campaign's fearful rhetoric are among the latest targets for two of America's top political cartoonists. Mike Peters and Mike Luckovich talk with NPR's Renee Montagne about the 2004 presidential campaign.

Melissa Block and food writer Mark Bittman visit a farmer's market, and return with ingredients for a springtime meal that features an unusual use for beets.

It'd be hard to top the craftsmanship that went into the songs on Southeastern, but Isbell thinks he's done it.

James Nicholson, the top official at the Department of Veterans Affairs, says he will leave his post by Oct. 1. Under Nicholson, the agency was criticized for being unprepared to care for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski and other top officials tour the Prudhoe Bay oil pipelines, which have been crippled by corrosion discovered on Sunday. Lost production at Prudhoe Bay, America's largest oilfield, has sent oil prices to record levels.

President-elect Barack Obama's choice for secretary of Housing and Urban Development got a friendly welcome at his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday. Shaun Donovan said his top priority at HUD will be to address the foreclosure crisis, which he said has led to some 2 million families losing their homes last year.