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NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on the reactivation of the Space Shuttle Children's Trust Fund, which will solicit donations from the public to provide for the 12 children whose parents died in the shuttle Columbia shuttle disaster. The fund was started 17 years ago after the shuttle Challenger explosion. While the federal government provides death benefits to the children of astronauts, the money is only a fraction of what their parents would have earned had they survived. (The Space Shuttle Children's Trust Fund, P.O. Box 34600, Washington, D.C. 20043-4600)

In the second installment of Morning Edition's series on emerging Southern artists, NPR's Debbie Elliott profiles Louisiana writer Louis Edwards. Edwards' second novel, N, follows journalist Aimee Dubois she tries to solve the killing of a black high school student. The noir-style mystery takes place in New Orleans' historic French Quarter and in the black neighborhood across town. (8:47-9:36) {Edwards, Louis, N, Plume Books, New York: 1997. ISBN: 0-525-94182-7}

Grocery shelves are sagging with every kind of beer imaginable, in taste and appearance. With the help of beer expert Michael Jackson, Michele Norris and Robert Siegel take stock — and taste — of some of the world's finest (and most expensive) beers.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld again dismisses talk that his time is short as the top civilian at the Pentagon. The Washington rumor mill has put Rumsfeld's job on the line in the past -- and been wrong. Renee Montagne talks to John Hendren about Rumsfeld's status, and the status of the initiatives he brought with him to the Pentagon five years ago.

Ehrman is the Bowman and Gordon Gray professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina. His newest book is Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. It chronicles the period before Christianity as we know it came to be, when people with conflicting ideas about the religion were fighting for prominence in the second and third centuries. Ehrman also edited a collection of the early non-canonical texts from the first centuries after Christ called Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament.

Contracts awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for post-Hurricane Katrina work along the Gulf Coast were initially awarded to big firms. But some local, smaller firms are questioning the deals. Unsuccessful bidders say the government didn't follow its own rules.

In the early 1980s, commentator Alexs Pate worked for a company called City Venture Corporation, which pooled big companies' resources to tackle inner-city poverty. It failed. Now, Pate says, it's time to try again to involve corporate America in the inner city. Pate is the author of the novel Amistad and is an assistant professor in African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota.

On his debut CD Rewind, singer Ricky Fanté recalls a bygone era when the airwaves were filled with the soulful sounds of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. Fanté talks about these and other influences.

Nanotechnology is finding a home in beauty products. Some skin-cream makers, for instance, say buckyballs can prevent premature aging of the skin by acting as an anti-oxidant. But some experts wonder about the safety of these highly engineered nanostructures.

In a new book, Feet on Street: Rambles around New Orleans, humorist Roy Blount, Jr. celebrates the corners and characters of the city. Blount takes Debbie Elliott for a stroll through the French Quarter.