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NPR's Rob Gifford reports from Northern China on political corruption in China's provinces. The latest incident involves a member of the Communist Party who was a figure in the local people's Congress and a mob boss. Critics say major political reforms are needed in order to erase the link between organized crime and the government.

Noah and Robert read some of the letters All Things Considered received from listeners this week. (4:00) Write to: Letters, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 635 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington DC, 20001 or send e-mail to atc@npr.org.

NPR's David Kestenbaum reports on a possible wrinkle in the space-time continuum. Really. Physicists measuring the fundamental characteristics of a subatomic particle, the muon, have come up with some very puzzling results that could punch a hole in the long-standing "standard model" of how matter is put together. And that could help usher in a completely new theory of matter, time and space. Unless, of course, some scientist has made a mistake. (4:30) (It was later revealed this was a mistake: "Well, I would say I'm responsible for the mistake. My collaborator did most of the work, but I am equally guilty of making mistakes." Toichiro Kinoshita, a physicist at Princeton University. Kinoshita's sin was to have a minus sign where he should have had a plus or maybe the other way around. He can't quite remember, though it ended up having gigantic consequences. Kinoshita and his colleague were calculating how a particular subatomic particle behaves when it's stuck in a magnetic field. The particle, it turns out, wobbles like a toy top at a particular frequency. Kinoshita enlisted hundreds of computers and, after a decade of heroic work, had precisely predicted how fast it should wobble according to the laws of physics. Last winter, other physicists who were out measuring the wobble found it differed significantly from Kinoshita's prediction. In the clockwork world of physics, this was potentially a huge finding, signaling something new and mysterious, except that it wasn't. Kinoshita traced his error to a tiny quirk in a computer program he was using. He hadn't checked that bit, in part because other physicists using a different approach had gotten the same answer."

Jean Betrand Aristide was inaugurated as Haiti's new president last week. NPR's Gerry (jerry) Hadden reports on the situation in Haiti after a decade of instability, coups and political corruption.

Host Bob Edwards speaks with Anne Bancroft. Bancroft and Liv Arnesen have recently become the first women to cross Antarctica on skis. The last leg of their journey measures a relatively small part of the total distance-- though it is equivalent to the distance across France. And because of ice forming off the coast of Antarctica, their boat is leaving on February 22 -- with or without them.

Host Bob Edwards talks with country music star Rodney Crowell. Crowell was just 11-years-old when he got his first gig, playing drums alongside his father in a honkey-tonk. He went on to write songs and produce albums for some of country music's top artists, including Willie Nelson and Emmy Lou Harris. The Texan's latest album is The Houston Kid. Crowell says it's his autobiography set to music.

Composer, arranger and trumpeter CHICO O-FARRILL. His music combines American jazz with the rhythms of Cuban/Latin Music. The 79-year old's latest CD is called "Carambola" (Milestone Records).

Commentator Katharine Mieszkowski says the Web has made it a whole lot easier to obtain all kinds of formerly private information.

Ohio Representative James Traficant is the subject of a federal investigation, in connection with free construction work and free cars the Congressman allegedly received from Ohio businessmen with interests before the government. Twenty years ago, when Traficant was a county sheriff, he was charged with taking bribes. He defended himself in court and won. His popularity launched him to Congress. Now, Traficant makes clear he's ready to defend himself again. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Today, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report on the state of our juvenile justice system, with recommendations on how to improve outcomes for teens placed in adult jails. NPR's Michelle Trudeau visits some teens housed in three adult prisons in Arizona, and talks with the researchers who have been tracking how the youngest inmates are doing.