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Some African-Americans say that a Florida law preventing convicted felons from voting has kept non-felons from voting, too. They say that in some cases, people who have never been arrested were turned away from the polls, and that others stayed away to avoid being falsely accused. NPR's Phillip Martin reports from Miami.

Janet Heimlich reports that while most Americans take running water, and electricity for granted, there are still pockets of the US where such amenities are lacking. Tamina, Texas is a small, poor, predominantly African American Community about 30 miles north of Houston. Although Tamina is near one of Houston's wealthiest suburbs, the community lacks a sewage system and many residents depend on septic tanks or the outdoors for waste disposal. The community is too poor to afford its own sewage system and county officials say it's not their job to provide this service. A survey by state officials in Texas has already identified nearly 400 communities in the state that have waste water problems.

In part 1, NPR's Brenda Wilson reports on the hard consequences the AIDS epidemic is wreaking in the African nation of Zambia, where poverty and a rising death rate has left the country with some 600 thousand orphans.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Anika Prather, an adjunct professor in Howard University's Classics Department, about the decision to dissolve the department.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is pushing ahead with a massive canal project through Istanbul — even though banks are afraid to fund it, and many think it is unnecessary.

John Le Carre's new thriller about murder in the African countryside and the greed of international drug cartels is called The Constant Gardener. Alan Cheuse has a review. (2:00) The Constant Gardener, by John Le Carre is published by Scribner.

Los Angeles' new police chief, William Bratton, faces his first major test as the city's murder rate hits a six-year high. The African-American community demands an end to the violence, yet urges the LAPD to exercise restraint as it increases neighborhood patrols. NPR's Andy Bowers reports.

On Dec. 5, 2002, Strom Thurmond marks his 100th birthday -- another milestone for the colorful lawmaker who in 1996 set the record as the oldest living member of the U.S. Senate. NPR's David Welna reports.

Writer John Szwed is the author of the new biography, So What: The Life of Miles Davis about the influential jazz trumpeter. Szwed is the John M. Musser Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies, Music and American Studies at Yale University. He is also the author of the biography Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, about another innovative musician.

Food problems in the small African nation of Malawi are typical of a hunger crisis that affects more than 20 countries on the continent. In Malawi, flooding ruined crops, and government officials are accused of selling grain reserves for personal profit. Matthew Algeo of Maine Public Radio reports.