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Today, a special joint session of the US Congress was held to certify the electoral college votes for President and Vice President. Vice President Al Gore presided over the session that announced George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as the winners of the election. Host Lisa Simeone talks about the proceeding with NPR's David Welna, where members of the Congressional Black Congress raised objections and ultimately walked out of the session in protest of uncounted popular votes in the state of Florida.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports on trouble facing the nomination of Linda Chavez to be George W. Bush's Secretary of Labor. The nomination has run into some problems following the revelation that an illegal immigrant lived in Chavez's house for a period of time and apparently did some work for her. Opponents of the Chavez nomination point to similarities to Zoe Baird, President Clinton's first choice for attorney general, whose name was withdrawn after it was revealed she had what is now known as a "nanny problem."

A sound montage of some of the voices in this past week's news, including NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue; President George W. Bush and Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (Democrat, South Dakota); Peter Lowenstein, who lost his son in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland and Scotland's chief prosecutor, Colin Boyd.

This Friday, George W. Bush embarks on his first presidential trip outside the US. He will travel to Mexico to meet the new president of Mexico, Vincente Fox. We talk about Mexico with Journalist Sam Quinones. He has been covering Mexico for 7 years. His new book is called, True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. Quinones work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, LA Weekly, and Ms Magazine.

Author and film historian Donald Bogle discusses D.W. Griffith's film, The Birth of a Nation. Airing as part of a series on African-Americans in Hollywood films, the movie has been reviled for its depiction of the Ku Klux Klan and blacks -- yet praised for its technical achievements.

George H.W. Bush says his decision to seek congressional backing for the 1991 Persian Gulf War removed the threat of impeachment. NPR's Cokie Roberts interviews Bush in the last of a series of conversations with three former presidents about the Constitution.

Country music legend Johnny Cash dies at 71 due to complications from diabetes. Over a career that spanned six decades, Cash produced such hits as "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire" and earned 11 Grammys. NPR's Melissa Block talks with W.S. Holland, Cash's longtime drummer, about the prison concerts Cash often performed.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new DVD of The Threepenny Opera. G.W. Pabst's 1931 film version of the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill musical, with Weill's wife Lotte Lenya as Jenny, is newly out from the Criterion Collection.

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks with former Assistant Secretary of State Princeton Lyman about a letter he and 25 other former diplomats and military commanders have signed, calling for the defeat of George W. Bush in the November 2004 presidential election. In the letter, the group says Bush has so harmed international relations that only a new leader can repair them.

In the 1960s, the nation became accustomed to getting its White House news not just from Washington, but from a ranch in Texas owned by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The LBJ Ranch was succeeded by President Richard Nixon's seaside residence at San Clemente California. Now, Americans will again have a "Western White House," this time in Crawford County, Texas, between Dallas and Austin: the home of President-elect George W. Bush. NPR's John Burnett paid a visit and gave us this report.