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A sound montage of some of the voices in this past week's news, including International Olympic Committee President Dr. Jacques Rogge; Canadian figure skater David Pelletier; Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.); former Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay; Representative Martin Meehan (D-Mass.); Representative Dick Armey (R-Tex.); President George W. Bush; Senator James Jeffords (I-Vt.); and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Ann Elise Henzl (ANN-uh-LEESE HEN-zul) of member station WUWM reports that Wisconsin is set to initiate the country's first statewide program that requires all welfare recipients to perform some work in exchange for benefits. Folks who can't find work will receive grants in exchange for community service work. Some critics of the "W-2" program say this provision will lock people into low-wage jobs, with little chance for advancement to self-sufficiency.

Joshua Levs of member station W-A-B-E reports on the case of James Earl Ray, who was convicted of the assination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray pled guilty to the charge of murder at the time, but he has long held that he is innocent and was coerced into the guilty plea by his lawyers. Now Ray is dying of liver cancer and wants to have a trial.

Meet everybody's favorite unknown Seattle band. Pearl Jam chose the Fastbacks as the opening act for its current world tour. The Fastbacks have been laboring for nearly twenty years on the Seattle club scene. They've watched as their friends became famous (during the major label feeding frenzy that descended on Seattle during the grunge boom) and they didn't. But they've persevered. Marcie Sillman, of member station K-U-O-W, reports.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports on President-elect George W. Bush's day in Austin, Texas, a day that led off with the naming of Paul O'Neill as his choice for Treasury Secretary. O'Neill's close relationship with Fed chairman Alan Greenspan has been cited as a "plus" for the selection. Other Cabinet appointments are expected to follow. Bush also met with a group of ministers to talk about the need for healing after a very contentious election.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports on the latest personnel announcements of President-elect George W. Bush, starting with Missouri Senator John Ashcroft for Attorney General. Ashcroft, a strong conservative, was defeated in his bid for re-election last month by the late Mel Carnahan. He's also a former two-term governor and state attorney general. New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman was chosen to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

NPR's John Nielsen reports on the background of Christine Todd Whitman, who has accepted president-elect George W. Bush's offer to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Whitman already has national stature and her acceptance is evidence that running EPA is no longer viewed as a stepping stone to national prominence. And she's neither friend nor foe to an environmental community that has been skeptical of the GOP agenda.

Host Bob Edwards talks with Texas State Senator Teel Bivens and Professor George Edwards, Director of the Center for Presidential Studies at Texas A&M, about the prospect of Texas Governor George W. Bush appointing Democrats to his Cabinet. Both men have worked extensively with Bush and say that the governor's bipartisan record in Texas will continue. Some past presidents have crossed party lines with Cabinet appointments, but it hasn't always guaranteed legislative bipartisanship.

President-elect George W. Bush is preparing to go to Washington, where he will find a Senate split 50-50 and a House of Representatives with a very narrow Republican majority. NPR's Pam Fessler has been talking to political veterans about how difficult the closely divided Congress will make the new president's job. She finds optimism on both sides, and a strong desire to get past the divisions of the election. But ideological and party differences are still obstacles.

A sound montage of some of the voices in this past week's news, including a United Nations spokesperson reading a statement from Secretary General Kofi Annan on the suicide bombings in Mombasa, Kenya; Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; President George W. Bush; Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT); Secretary of State Colin Powell; President Bush; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; and President Bush.