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Look at Patrick Kruger's house and you see the bottom of his tree through a window, and the top pushing through a damaged roof. Kruger was actually having a little fun. He broke his 14-foot tree in two and used building materials to create the illusion.

Cumberland Farms put giant photo cutouts of David Hasselhoff in front of their stores across New England and Florida. The 60-year-old star of Baywatch and Knight Rider is shown smiling, wearing a tank top and promoting iced coffee. Of 570 photos, roughly 550 have been stolen.

The top spot on the American Library Association's annual list of most challenged books goes to The Adventures of Captain Underpants — for the second year in a row.

JAMES CARVILLE was President Clinton's chief strategist in the 1992 election. MARY MATALIN was a top political aide to George Bush. They dated during the campaign and are now married. They've just written a book together, "All's Fair: Love, War, and Running for President," (Random House/Simon & Schuster) that tells the story of their romance and the campaigns.

NPR's David Welna reports on the very different perceptions in Havana and Washington of the Helms-Burton bill, signed into law today by President Clinton. Backers of the bill in Congress say it will hasten Fidel Castro's downfall by tightening the US embargo. But Cuban officials, while denouncing the bill, say they don't expect it to have much economic impact. In Washington, President Clinton's top adviser on Cuba says the bill gives the president less room to maneuver in dealing with Castro.

Tess Vigeland of member station WBUR reports that the Boston Latin School has settled out of court with a family that sued the school to protest a special entrance provision for minority students. As part of the settlement, the city's school board will drop special racial admissions categories for the city's prestigious Boston Latin School, and for two other top schools. The student and her family sued after she was denied admission despite receiving higher test scores than some minority students who were admitted.

NPR's Eric Weiner reports that Japan's worst economic downturn since World War II has radically changed expectations of young college graduates. In years past, the country's corporate giants would go to the top schools and actively recruit new employees, who generally were given jobs for life. Now it is the students who are chasing employers. And many of them are not finding jobs. Some have given up on full-time employment and simply bounce from one part-time job to another while living with their parents.

Southern California Edison, one of California's cash-strapped electric utilities, defaulted to some of its creditors today. It failed to repay, at least temporarily, a 596-million-dollar wholesale electricity bill. The move brings the company a step closer to bankruptcy. The utility said the action was necessary to allow it to continue operations while state and federal officials seek a regulatory solution to California's power crisis. The state, meanwhile, declared another top level power emergency today, citing a shortage of natural gas needed to generate electricity. Scott Horsley reports.

Paul Bremer, the new U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, arrives in Bagdhad as part of a broad shake-up in the U.S. reconstruction team. Moving out of the country are four top U.S. administrators amid charges that the team has been too slow restoring basic services and has failed to ensure security. NPR's Guy Raz reports.

Thomas Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, discusses this week's long-awaited progress report from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the top two American officials in Iraq.