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NPR's Jack Speer reports that many businessess are eagerly anticipating the release of U.S. census numbers. Companies use the information to track demographics, helping them to plan where to open branches and to what group of people they'll market their products. The Census Bureau say no one should be worried about privacy, since an individual's information cannot be tracked.

Robert Siegel talks with Ian F. Hanley Lopez, professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, about changing definitions in the United States of who is white. Lopez is the author of White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race.

Linda Wertheimer talks with Dennis Lehane about his latest book, called Mystic River, which follows three friends as youngsters and adults and the dark events in their lives.

Alan Cheuse reviews a book of short stories called Island, by Alistair MacLeod that take place in his homeland of Nova Scotia.

If all goes according to plan, the space shuttle Discovery will take off early tomorrow morning. It's carrying hardware and a replacement crew for the international space station. NPR's Chris Joyce reports.

He traveled to Afghanistan to profile Ahmad Shah Massoud, (known as the Lion of Panjshir), the legendary leader of the guerrilla war against the Soviets, who is now fighting the Taliban. Junger traveled with photographer Reza Deghati who spent several years covering the war there. Jungers article The Lion in Winter appears in the March/April issue of National Geographics Adventure magazine. Its also the subject of a National Geographic Explorer program Into the Forbidden which aired march 4 on CNBC.

Commentator Ruben Navarette says there's a difference between where Hispanics are politically and where they should be in terms of their demographics. While the population of Hispanics is rising, the number of Hispanic representatives at all levels of government hasn't kept pace.

Robert Siegel talks with Andy Bowers from Pearl Harbor about the Navy inquiry into the collision between a U.S. submarine and a Japanese fishing boat. Today is the third day of hearings into the Feb. 9 accident that killed nine Japanese men and boys.

President Bush has adopted a harder line toward North Korea than his predecessor did. At the White House today Mr. Bush raised doubts as to whether the communist North is keeping agreements it made with former President Clinton. Also at the White House, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States will not immediately resume the negotiations that the Clinton administration began with Pyongyang. The remarks came as Mr. Bush met with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who is seeking reconciliation with the North. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

In his three-part series on the oil century, John Burnett reports that a century ago, a gusher blew on Spindletop Hill in southeast Texas, inaugurating America's infatuation with oil and gas. The first of the great southwest oil fields, Spindletop made America a global energy power, virtually overnight.