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When Louis Armstrong recorded Hello, Dolly in 1963, he gave it his unique vocal and instrumental treatment. But he had no idea the song would become a success.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that President Vladimir Putin is meeting with 21 Russian businessmen today in an effort to ease rising tensions caused by legal cases against big companies. The criminal tax investigations into some of Russia's top business tycoons, is making them unhappy. They accuse the government of singling them out.

NPR's Brian Naylor looks at what remains for Congress to do before it leaves for the August break. Topping the list are most of next year's spending bills, yet to pass both houses -- and President Clinton is threatening vetos unless more funding is allocated to the top programs on his agenda.

Brian Mann of North Country Public Radio reports on ESPN's new television series, The Great Outdoor Games. With events such as log rolling and bass fishing, ESPN turns its cameras to contests in which top competitors endorse chainsaws and fly fishing reels rather than athletic shoes and clothing lines.

NPR's Mexico City Correspondent Gerry Hadden reports on President-elect Vicente Fox's efforts to put together a cabinet as he prepares to take over the nation's top job. Fox brings a businessman's experience and priorities to a position that has been dominated by politicians and cronism for more than 70 years.

A sound montage of some of the voices in this past week's news, including White House spokesman Joe Lockhart on the Middle East summit at Camp David; former South African President Nelson Mandela at the closing ceremony of the international AIDS conference; Texas governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore at the NAACP Convention in Baltimore; Judge Robert Kaye, who presided over the civil lawsuit in Miami against the top five tobacco companies; Phillip Morris attorney Dan Webb and smokers' attorney Stanley Rosenblatt on the $145 billion punitive damages verdict.

NPR's Debbie Elliott reports on the historical decision in Florida smokers' class action lawsuit against the nation's top five cigarette making companies. The jury hit the companies with a $145 billion punitive damages verdict, -the largest civil jury award in history.

NPR's Tom Goldman reports on the economics of small-market baseball. Unlike major league football, professional baseball revenues aren't widely shared among franchises. Teams like the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves earn significant money from TV contracts, and that allows them to afford the sport's top talent. But smaller-market teams must rely on fan loyalty to fill the ballpark. And while they may nurture young, rising stars, these teams know that talented players are likely to go where the money takes them.

In 1954, a square-looking country singer from the suburbs of Philadelphia named Bill Haley recorded the song that became a countdown to a new musical era.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone talks with historian Stephen Ambrose about a mission that unfolded in the early hours of D-Day to seize a strategically important bridge. Ambrose is the author of a book about the mission, Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944 (Touchstone Books, 1988).