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John Biewen of Minnesota Public Radio reports on the rise of the so-called fringe banks...pawn shops and check cashing businesses which charge very high rates of interest and cater to the poor. An increasing number of poor families have no relationship with a traditional bank or savings and loan. Advocates for the poor say that higher and more pervasive fees are pushing the poor out of banks and into the pawn shops. Bankers disagree and suggest there are lots of reasons why poor people prefer "fringe" banking.

Beth Fertig of member station WNYC reports that New York Governor George Pataki proposes testing every welfare applicant for drug use, and cutting off cash benefits for those testing positive. They'd be sent to treatment programs "when available," and experts predict chaos because of the number of addicts on welfare far exceeds the number of treatment centers.

who now advocates doing away with all nuclear weapons. Until three years ago, General Butler was in charge of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He says that, with the end of the Cold War, the rationale for keeping nuclear weapons no longer exists, and that the United States should lead the effort to eliminate them.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports from the Zairean capital Kinshasa that longtime President Mobutu Sese Seko is expected to return tomorrow after spending several months in Europe getting treatment for prostate cancer. Mobutu will be returning to a country in severe crisis: a weak civilian government and a largely inept military are facing a surging rebel army in eastern Zaire. Some believe the uprising, combined with Zaire's legendary corruption, economic mismanagement and political instability, could lead to the complete disintegration of one of Africa's largest nations.

return home to Kinshasa after cancer treatment. Mobutu must face the disintegration of his country with rebels backed by Rwanda controlling large areas of the east of the nation.

the Clinton Administration out of expanding a law requiring them to detail all the chemicals that go into plants and factories. Environmentalists are pushing for the expansion, to hold the chemical industry accountable for accidents and toxic pollution.

its digital wireless communication network. The long distance phone company will combine voice and data transmission to offer a wireless telephone and pager in one package.

A special commission set up by Congress to study the accuracy of the consumer price index has concluded the C.P.I. overstates inflation by approximately 1.1%. The commission, headed up by former Bush Administration economic advisor, Michael Boskin, made several recommendations for correcting the upward bias...which costs the federal government billions of dollars every year because the C.P.I. is used to adjust benefit payments to millions of American retirees and veterans. NPR's John Ydstie reports.

Kathleen Schalch reports many members will not be returning as elected representatives but as lobbyists seeking to influence legislation they helped write.