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Mark Melman about public sentiment regarding current campaign finance scandals. Melman is the CEO of the Melman Group, a political polling and consulting firm for democrats. He has been conducting focus groups to learn how people feel about politics and money, and why. He says that people used to have confidence in the own member of congress - while feeling the system was broken. Now it turns out a large majority feel even their own member of congress is very affected by special interest contributions.

Scott talks to Jimmy Sturr who won a Grammy this week in the category of Polka. It is his eighth Grammy...all in this category. His award-winning album is called "Polka! All Night Long" (Rounder Records)

Besides being the day tax returns are due, today is the deadline for Congress to pass a budget plan for next year. As usual, the deadline won't be met. Negotiators for the House, Senate and White House have been meeting for weeks now and are far from an agreement on how to balance the budget by the year 2002. Differences between the parties on tax cuts and cuts in Medicare and Medicaid spending are broad. However, some progress has been made on potential cuts in several smaller programs such as student loans. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Journalist ANDREW SULLIVAN. Sullivan was the editor of The New Republic for five years and the first openly gay editor of a national magazine. On leaving the position last year, he revealed he is HIV positive. His new book is "Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con" (Vintage Books). Sullivan is the U.S. columnist for the Sunday Times of London and has written articles for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, and other publications. He is also author of the bestseller "Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality."12:28:30 FORWARD PROMO (:29)12:29:00 I.D. BREAK (:59)12:

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the birth of Charles Mingus. As an instrumentalist, he became known as "the Segovia of the bass" and championed the unwieldy instrument as a solo voice in jazz groups. He became one of the first bassists to lead his own group. But perhaps he made his greatest mark as a composer. He was inspired by Ellington and carried that great composer's ideas to new levels in the nearly 300 works Mingus left behind. Karen Michel (mih-SHELL) has this report on the life and music of one of America's true jazz innovators. (8:00) ((ST

Storyteller Carmen Deedy explores the unexpected in "Twisting in the Wind of Semantics," a story about how a small miscommunication between herself and her mother lead to chaos.

-- Today, the Senate will continue debate over the Chemical Weapons Treaty. It's already been ratified by more than 70 countries aiming to ban the use and production of chemical warfare agents...now a two-thirds vote is needed for U-S ratification. The treaty will take effect worldwide next week with or without American participation.

N-P-R's Patricia Neighmond reports that doctors have announced that a 63-year-old Californian had a child last year, making her the oldest woman to ever give birth. This provides scientists with new ideas about the aging of the reporductive systems, but may add to the ethical dilemmas of fertility technology.

In the last installment in our drug prevention series, NPR's Vicky Que (KWAY) talks to school administrators and educational experts about marketing the good -- or at least, effective -- prevention programs to get more of them into more of the nation's schools. There are thousands of school districts, but only a few hundred have effective drug education programs.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports on the opening of two days of debate in the Senate on the Chemical Weapons Convention. The vote for ratification...which requires a two thirds majority...looks as though it will be close. It takes place tomorrow. The treaty got some unexpected supported today from former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.