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NPR's Barbara Bradley reports that President Bush has decided to end a five-decade tradition of the American Bar Association screening potential federal judicial candidates. White House Counsel Al Gonzales has written to the ABA, informing the group the White House will no longer provide names before they are made public. The ABA has a special committee that has screened candidates since the Eisenhower administration. The panel gave potential judges the ratings of "well qualified," "qualified" or "not qualified." Some conservatives opposed ABA screening, saying they believed the ABA had a liberal bias.

NPR's David Welna reports on the second installment of President Bush's tax plan, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee today on a party-line vote. This installment, which the full House is expected to take up next week, focuses on the so-called marriage tax and the child tax credit. But Democrats argue -- and some Republicans agree -- that none of this addresses the immediate problem of the faltering economy.

Some say the financial markets continue to decline because the Federal Reserve decided to cut interest rates by just half a percent earlier this week. Commentator Lyle Gramley, who is a former member of the Federal Reserve Board, says Wall Street's decline is more about the slowdown in the economy. A previous Fed commentary aired yesterday. In that piece, Bert Ely said the Fed's interest rate cut was too little, too late, and that the Fed has a history of either under or overreacting.

Noah Adams talks to EPA Administrator Christie Whitman about two recent Bush administration decisions: to rescind arsenic standards put into place in the final days of the Clinton administration, and to reverse a position on carbon dioxide regulations. Whitman says that both decisions were based on balancing needs -- in the arsenic case, health and affordable water; in the carbon dioxide case, energy demands and greenhouse gas limitations.

NPR's Madeleine Brand talks with Jef Beck, one of the world's foremost collector of Ken Dolls. Today is the 40th anniversary of Barbie's male counterpart.

In the first of a two-part series, NPR's Peter Overby reports on the relationship between the oil industry and federal government. The two have a history that stretches back to the early 1900's. Tomorrow, Overby explores what the industry hopes to gain from a new president who got his start drilling oil in Texas.

His string of bestsellers, such as The Bourne Identity, The Osterman Weekend, and The Icarus Agenda, established him as one of literature's most successful espionage novelists. Ludlum died yesterday of a heart attack. He was 74 years old.

Noah Adams talks to Michael Kirst, a professor of education at Stanford University. He was co-chair of the technical committee that selected questions for the new California state high school exit test. He says that the test measures the minimum proficiency a student must demonstrate in English and math in order to graduate. Other states require a test for high school graduation. The tests in Virginia and Massachusetts, for example, are much harder than the California test.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports the Nasdaq bounced back a bit from its steep fall yesterday. The Dow industrials spent most of the day in negative territory. Stock prices have plummeted in recent weeks because of a string of disappointing earnings reports from major technology companies.

NPR's Renee Montagne talks with Richard Curtis of the charity group Comic Relief. He convinced Harry Potter author JK Rowling to write two Hogwarts textbooks for donation to the organization.