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Jazz critic KEVIN WHITEHEAD reviews the new Helen Merrill release,"Brownie," a tribute to Clifford Browne, on the Verve label.

Daniel talks to Olivia Gans of the National Right to Life Committee and Henry Felisone of the Evangelical Mission Church about recent violence at clinics where abortions are performed. Gans says that her organization condemns violence in the name of the antiabortion movement and that the violence does nothing to stop abortions. Felisone says that killing doctors who perform abortions is justifiable homicide and that it is philosophically inconsisent to say that abortion is murder but to condemn the killing of people who perform abortions.

Like many of South America's indians who have suffered virtual cultural extinction in recent years, the Chachi Indians of Ecuador are undergoing a similiar fate. But, a group of U.S. researchers have invited a couple of Chachi's to replicate a Chachi village and Chachi culture at the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Boca Raton. NPR's Chris Joyce has this report.

Journalist DENNIS COVINGTON. He's written a new book about the practice of snake handling in a Southern Appalachian church. Practitioners use snake handling as a kind of "annointing", in a belief that the Holy Spirit comes down to protect them from fear and danger in handling the poisonous snakes. COVINGTON came to write the book as a journalistic endeavor and it became an exploration of his own faith. He himself handled the snakes. COVINGTON's new book is "Salvation on Sand Mountain," (Addison-Wesley).

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Paperboy", a new novel from Pete Dexter (published by Random House).

2: JOHN LEE is a former member of the Masters of Doom. Federal agents had been monitoring the rivalry between the two gangs. LEE was arrested and sent to jail.

Poet LLOYD VAN BRUNT (pronounced like "grunt"). He grew up poor and white in Oklahoma. He writes, in the The New York Times magazine section, "To be poor in a country that places a premium on wealth is in itself shameful. To be white and poor is unforgiveable." (March 27, 1994). BRUNT says poor whites have no defenders ("white trash" they are called) and they are made to feel ashamed of themselves because of the assumption that they "should" be able to make a success of themselves. BRUNT's father abandoned the family, his mother died when he was eight. BRUNT spent years in foster homes and orphanages where he was abused. BRUNT has written several volumes of poetry. His latest is "Poems New and Selected 1962 - 1992," (The Smith, Brooklyn). He's currently working on his memoir, "I fall in Love with Nancy Drew: Tales of Childhood." (REBROADCAST from 5

SCOTT TALKS WITH NPR'S AFRICA REPORTER MICHAEL SKOLER. THE U-N IS SET TO COMPLETE A REMOVAL OF ITS TROOPS FROM SOMALIA BY THE END OF MARCH, BUT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR THE COUNTRY ANY BETTER THAN IT WAS TWO YEARS AGO WHEN TROOPS ARRIVED?

SIMON/LETTERS: SCOTT READS SOME LETTERS FROM OUR LISTENERS.

NPR'S LYNN NEARY REPORTS ON THE SUGGESTION FROM SOME REPUBLICANS THAT THE PRIVATE SECTOR HELP TO DEFRAY SOME OF THE COSTS OF WELFARE REFORM. SHE VISITS SOME CATHOLIC-RUN CHARITIES' PROGRAMS -- AMONG THE BIGGEST PRIVATE PROGRAMS -- AND FINDS THAT, THERE, GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IS ALSO LARGE.