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For the past 20 years, president and director Gary Graffman has nurtured top talent at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music. Now 77, he's stepping down from his adminstrative posts and focusing once again on teaching piano.

In his first one-on-one interview with the media since the start of the war in Iraq, Sec. of State Colin Powell talks about expanding the "coalition of the willing" -- and says he has no intentions of stepping down as the nation's top diplomat.

The Pfizer drug company agrees to pay a $430 million fine and plead guilty to illegal marketing practices, U.S. prosecutors say. The unprecedented fine comes after the company admitted that its Warner-Lambert unit promoted Neurontin, an epilepsy drug, for several unapproved uses. The drug remains a top seller for Pfizer, with 2003 sales of $2.7 billion. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports.

Thomas Edison's music room went unused since the days when he was using it to record the famous at the turn of the century. Lately, some top names have been back there in West Orange, New Jersey, making modern-day wax cylinders, which use no microphone, no electricity.

James Nicholson, the top official at the Department of Veterans Affairs, says he will leave his post by Oct. 1. Under Nicholson, the agency was criticized for being unprepared to care for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the second of our four-part series on managed health care, NPR's Patricia Neighmond takes a look at how a group of doctors in Southern California has banded together to take back control over medical decision-making from insurance companies. The doctors' new group practice grew out of frustration with a payment system that was permitting HMOs and other insurance companies to make decisions about when and how a patient would receive medical care. Analysts say the group is a model for other doctors who want to practice cost-efficient medicine and provide patients with top-quality care.

NPR's Melissa Block is in Tallahassee, where the Bush campaign won a potentially significant legal victory early today. A circuit judge reaffirmed the decision of Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State and a Republican, which said Harris could certify the state's vote count tomorrow without having to include the results of hand recounts that are going on in several counties. Then late in the day the Florida Supreme Court delayed any certiification of the election by the Florida Secretary of State. The manual recounts have been going on in predominantly Democratic counties, and the Gore camp hoped that numbers coming out of those counties would put the Vice President over the top in the key battle for Florida's 25 electoral votes. Democrats said they will appeal the ruling in state Supreme Court.

Melissa Block and food writer Mark Bittman visit a farmer's market, and return with ingredients for a springtime meal that features an unusual use for beets.

It'd be hard to top the craftsmanship that went into the songs on Southeastern, but Isbell thinks he's done it.

In a world that wants everyone partnered up, this comic by Meghan Keane and LA Johnson offers tips from the experts on how to find peace with singleness and live a full life on your own terms.