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Security-minded lawmakers are turning their attention to the U.S. chemical industry, because chemicals from a sabotaged plant could threaten lives of millions of people in cities across the nation. NPR's Jack Speer travels to Freeport, Texas, where Dow Chemical operates one of the nation's biggest chemical plants.

Director Sam Mendes. He made his feature film debut in 1999 with American Beauty which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Mendes also won an Oscar for directing. Prior to that Mendes made his mark directing theatre productions in London (revival of Cabaret and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice)and on Broadway (The Blue Room). He directed the new film Road to Perdition starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Jude Law.

Aerospace consultant Nick Cook, author of the new book, The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology. (Broadway Books/ Random House) In the book, Cook tracks down the secret history of anti-gravity research. It*s technology that defies the laws of physics. Cook discovered that during WWII, the Nazis claimed to have been close to antigravity technology. The U.S. government allegedly conducted antigravity research in the 1950s and 60s. Cook is former Aviation Editor for the military affairs journal, Jane's Defense Weekly.

Clifford's new book is The Lost Fleet: The Discovery of a Sunken Armada from the Golden Age of Piracy. The lost fleet was a group of French ships that sank in 1678 on the reef of Las Aves island, 100 miles off the Venezuelan coast.

Alfred Mosher Butts, an out-of-work architect, invented a game that players say perfectly balances skill and luck, risk and reward. As part of Morning Edition's Present at the Creation series, sportswriter and Scrabble expert Stefan Fatsis explores the unlikely origins of an American game.

Jude Johnstone has written songs for some of the biggest stars in the music business, including Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Trisha Yearwood and Johnny Cash. Now the songwriter has stepped up to the microphone to perform her own songs on a debut CD. Renie Montagne profiles Johnstone and her music on Morning Edition. (8:50) Jude Johnstone's album, Coming of Age, is on the independent BoJak Records label.

For Kentucky students wanting to participate in sports, their sex would be determined by the sex printed on their birth certificate and an affidavit from a doctor ascertaining that information.

Now appearing on All Things Considered: The comedy troupe responsible for such classic spoofs as I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus. Today, Firesign Theatre tackles the issue of homeland security, and the government's program to get civilians to "tip" the government to suspicious activity.

Until about 70 years ago, musical instruments remained pretty much the same as they were for centuries. Then a new invention changed modern music and popular culture as well -- the electric guitar. For the continuing series Present at the Creation, NPR's Christopher Joyce traces the origins of an instrument that changed popular music forever.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History opened a new exhibit Monday featuring the Cambridge, Mass. kitchen where Julia Child filmed many of her television shows -- and where many Americans learned to be less afraid of French cooking. See photos and a video of the exhibit -- and learn about Child's life as a World War II spy. See http://americanhistory.si.edu/kitchen/index.htm.