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John Wesley Powell is best known as an explorer of the Colorado River and surrounding regions. But his greatest legacy may be the early warnings he sounded about settlement and water use in the West. A century after his death, Powell's ideas are earning new credibility.

In 1941, a group of young women in Northern Virginia formed a book club to pass the time while their husbands got started on their careers. More than 60 years later, the six surviving members are still reading, and still meeting. Howard Berkes reports for All Things Considered.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from the Calabria region of Italy -- home of the 'Ndrangheta, the most secretive and elusive of the Italian Mafias. A new CD collection of generations-old songs glorifying a culture of violence and vendetta is a best-seller in Europe. Hear full-length cuts from the CD, and get English translations of the lyrics. (9:00) La Musica Della Mafia, Il Canto di Malavita is available on Pias America, Catalogue# PIASA 8.

Now on her fourth decade at the top of the country music scene, Dolly Parton recently joined Morning Edition host Bob Edwards in the NPR studios to talk about her childhood, her long, lucrative career and her latest CD, Halos & Horns. Listen to Parton's convincing take on one of rock 'n' roll's sacred cows, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

On the 40th anniversary of the desegregation of Ole Miss, NPR presents a series of stories examining the events of that time, what has become of the people involved, and the campus today. For All Things Considered, NPR's David Molpus and Cheryl Corley talk with current Ole Miss students, professors and administrators.

Novelist Tim LaHaye is the co-author of the popular Left Behind series. The books are apocalyptic Christian thrillers. The tenth and latest book is The Remnant, which debuted at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. LaHaye is also the former co-chairman of Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, was on the original board of directors of the Moral Majority and was an organizer of the Council for National Policy which has been called "the most powerful conservative organization in America you've never heard of."

With tax revenues waning, many public schools are looking for new sources of money. In the second part of Beyond the Bake Sale, a Morning Edition series, NPR's Emily Harris reports on private foundations that are being set up to help pay for public schools. She also looks at funding disparities between rich and poor school districts.

California's record $35-billion budget deficit is anything but a game, but a Sacramento Bee columnist has made it one. Daniel Weintraub challenged his readers to study where the money goes, and then plug their proposed spending cuts and tax increases into an online budget game. NPR's Andy Bowers reports on some of the novel solutions players came up with.

Singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey started out singing in public places for change. He's gone on to make several albums, but for his most recent outing, he returned to the Boston subway to record a series of cover songs by the likes of Elvis Costello, Los Lobos and Bob Dylan. For Weekend Edition Sunday, Liane Hansen talks with Mulvey during a visit to the Davis Street T stop where the album was recorded. (Ten Thousand Mornings is on Signature Sounds, catalog #1274. For more information, visit www.petermulvey.com.)

Phil Patton, author of Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile. It's a cultural history of the Volkswagen Beetle, the most produced and best-known car of all time. Patton writes for The New York Times, Esquire, Wired and ID. He also wrote Dreamland: Travels inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51.