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Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) says he will step down as Senate Republican leader following a furor over remarks that seemed to endorse America's segregated past. Lott faced a Jan. 6 vote on his status as incoming majority leader and a challenge for the post from Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN). Hear from NPR's Alex Chadwick and NPR's David Welna.

The notions of freedom, democracy and free speech are sometimes difficult for adults to comprehend and express. NPR's Neva Grant visits a group of eighth-graders trying to make sense of the First Amendment. It's part of Morning Edition "Citizen Student" series on civics education.

Doctors are struggling to treat two diseases that have reached epidemic proportions in American children: asthma and obesity. Physicians at Boston's Children's Hopsital have given cameras to their young patients to document what goes on outside the doctor's office. And as Madge Kaplan reports, the tapes are revealing a side of kids' lives doctors rarely see, but probably should.

Twenty-two-year-old violinist Hilary Hahn has quickly established herself as a convincing performer of a wide variety of music. Many of the world's top musicians love playing with her. From a concert she gave with pianist Garrick Ohlsson at the Skaneatales (SKAN-ee-AT-eh-less) Festival in upstate New York, we'll hear a lively and angular encore, "Parasha's Song," by Igor Stravinsky. 4:30 Visit Hilary Hahn's Web site

In 1959, seven now-legendary musicians in the prime of their careers went into the studio to record five simple compositional sketches. The result was a universally acknowledged masterpiece, the best-selling jazz album of all time: Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.

Mother-daughter Act: We'll hear Dvorak's "Silent Woods," played by young cellist Alisa Weilerstein (ah-LISS-ah WEYE-ler-steyen). It's music from her debut recording. Her mother, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, plays the piano. (EMI Classics 7243 5 73498 2 6)

Gounod's First Symphony: We'll hear the companionable First Symphony by French composer Charles Gounod. It starts out like Mozart, and ends with a thrilling tympani roll. We'll hear a top- notch concert performance that the Lausanne (loh-ZAHN) Chamber Orchestra gave last month in Switzerland. Okko Kamu (AWK-kaw KAH- moo) conducts the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. (Swiss Radio/EBU)

Jeremy Dances: We'll hear a preview from this week's artist-in- residence at Performance Today: young American pianist Jeremy Denk. It's a selection from a recital he gave a year ago at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Denk plays the Courante from the Partita No. 6 in E minor, BWV 830, by Johann Sebastian Bach. (Tom Stephenson's Emmanuel Audio Recordings of Boston)

Songs of the Lovelorn: We'll hear the "Hour of the Shepherd," a wry piece by Jean Francaix (zhah(n) frah(n)-SAY). The three movements each have a wry title. There's "The Old Boyfriends," "Pin-up Girls," and "The Nervous Teenagers." It's a performance by members of the Camerata Pacifica. We'll hear flutist Adrian Spence, oboist Andria Ridilla, clarinettist Emily Bernstein, bassoonist John Steinmetz, horn player Steve Becknell, and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin. It's from a concert they gave April 6th in Santa Barbara, California. (Opus One Mobile Recordings of Santa Barbara)

Emersons in Portland: We'll hear the Emerson String Quartet from a concert it gave March 6th at Lincoln Hall Auditorium at Portland State University, in Oregon. The group performs one of Haydn's last string quartets--his Quartet in G major, Op. 77, No. 1. We'll also hear an encore, the slow movement of Samuel Barber's String Quartet, also known as the Adagio for Strings. (Roderick Evenson Recordings)