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Americans -- especially young Americans -- are losing the battle against fat. The percentage of teenagers who are overweight has doubled in the past two decades. Science reporter Frank Browning reports that the reason has to do with a culture that encourages overconsumption.

Midwestern singer-songwriter Greg Brown is both a road poet and a keen observer of the natural world. He says that he likes to think about his work as stories sanded down into songs. His new CD is called Covenant; it's his 17th album. He talks to Jacki from his home in Iowa City. (Red House Records 2000)

Co-Host Renee Montagne reports on the issue of family values and blues. Montagne talks with guitarist John Cephas, about the lascivious nature of blues music. Party leaders blocked a planned fund-rasier at the Playboy Mansion this week; instead, the Hispanic Unity event was moved to B.B. King's Blues Club in Universal City. Cephas says many blues songs don't seem to go well with the concept of "family values."

Noah talks with Bill Carrick, a democratic media consultant. His firm is Morris, Carrick and Guma. They talk about the flap over a fundraiser scheduled at the Playboy Mansion, President Clinton's apology for his behavior at an evangelical conference yesterday and the other fundraising scheduled this weekend. Mr. Carrick disagrees with the rumor that VP Gore is keeping Clinton away from his campaign.

Janet Heimlich reports form Brownsville, Texas, where a jury decided not to award punitive damages to a Tejano family who sued to regain lost profits from mineral rights discovered on their former land. Last week, the same jury gave the Balli family 1.1 million dollars in compensatory damages; the case is potentially groundbreaking since it could open the door to similar claims by Mexican American families.

Host Alex Chadwick talks to Armando Alonzo, professor of history at Texas A&M about the verdict of a jury in Brownville, Texas. Six decades after a New York lawyer bought Padre Island from a Mexican-American family, the jury determined that he had swindled the family's impoverished descendants out of 1.1 million-dollars in oil and gas royalties.

The story behind the ground breaking hit from the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.

While the Arkansas governor's mansion is being renovated, the governor's family will be residing in a triple-wide mobile home on the mansion grounds. Robert talks to Janet Huckabee, First Lady of Arkansas, about her family's new accommodations.

NPR's Mary Ann Akers reports on what has become the most controversial party scheduled before next month's Democratic National Convention -- a fundraiser for a Hispanic vote political action committee to be held at the Playboy Mansion. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat, defends the event as a way of obtaining money for her cause. The money will go to her PAC, not the Democratic National Committee. Vice President Al Gore insists he will not attend. But some Democrats are still grumbling at what the fundraiser may say about their party.

Karen Brown reports from Holyoke, Massachusetts on car clubs for young men. Members supe up their vehicles with accessories like impressive stereo systems, seventeen inch rims, leather interiors, and high-end performance parts. Clubs often take on extra jobs to pay for these modifications, and they compete in car shows. The clubs help to get some men off the streets, and have gained a certain degree of respectability in the city.