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Old computer monitors and TV picture tubes dumped in landfills can leach hazardous amounts of lead into groundwater, according to a scientific study. The research is playing a key role in the fight to keep electronics out of landfills and has intensified a controversy over who should pay to recycle them. NPR's Emily Harris reports for Morning Edition.

Pianist and singer Michael Feinstein. His repertoire is American popular song and he is a collector of vintage recordings and musical memorabilia. In the fall he plans to release a collection of radio duets by Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, on his new record label Feinery. Feinstein released a new CD with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Feinstein and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Concord).

Senate debate begins this week on ways to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Fifteen years ago, Congress passed such a measure, only to repeal it a year later under a storm of criticism. NPR's Julie Rovner reports for Morning Edition.

Brazilian physicist Marcelo Gleiser is the author of the new book, The Prophet and the Astronomer: A Scientific Journey to the End of Time (WW Norton). In it he explores our relationship to the sky and how it has influenced religion and then in turn - science. He writes, 'one of my goals. . is to humanize science, to argue that our scientific ideas are very much a product of the cultural and emotional environment where they originate'. Gleiser is Professor of Natural Philosophy and professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College.

Fifty years ago, Folkways Records released a six-album set of recordings that had a profound influence on the folk music revival and later on rock music. Morning Edition has the story of Harry Smith's The Anthology of American Folk Music. NPR Online offers a selection of songs from the collection.

Researchers and activists are in Barcelona this week to talk about the global AIDS epidemic. But another epidemic of similar size is sweeping the globe: tuberculosis. A major push is on to expand TB treatment, and as NPR's Richard Harris reports from Kenya, the treatment is working, even under some of the most challenging conditions.

Former fire commissioner of New York City, Thomas Von Essen. He led the department through the Sept. 11 attacks and during rescue and early recovery efforts. During the attacks, the department lost 343 men, many of them Von Essen's friends and colleagues. Von Essen stepped down as fire commissioner on December 31, 2001. He's written a new memoir with Matt Murray, Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York.

A group of scientists reported finding a six or seven million-year-old skull in Chad, Central Africa. The specimen, the oldest hominid skull ever found, will shed new light on a mysterious period in human history. The new species has been nicknamed Toumao, a name for children born before the dry season in the African desert.

Leo Litwak is a retired San Francisco State University professor of English. He's the author of the new memoir, The Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II (Penguin Books). Litwak was a 19-year-old medic. One reviewer writes, "[A] book that should be given to every schoolboy in the country at the age of 13... the Medic teaches us so much, makes clear that sometimes the monsters in war are not only the enemy."

British actor Terence Stamp is best known for his roles in the 1960s films Billy Budd and The Collector. He also was in Far from the Madding Crowd. After working with Fellini in Italy and with other Italian directors, he took a nine-year hiatus. He returned to the screen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and recently in The Limey and Star Wars: Episode One. His latest film is My Wife Is an Actress.