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President Bush flies to New Mexico to sign the energy bill Congress just passed after more than four years of debate. The bill is 1,725 pages, and it includes a number of projects intended to please individual congressional districts.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that people who use marijuana for medical reasons can be prosecuted by the federal government, even when a state sanctions medicinal use of the drug. Ten states allow people to take marijuana under a doctor's prescription.

The Senate confirms Priscilla Owen to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by a vote of 55-43, ending a four-year struggle. A compromise worked out by a bipartisan group of 14 senators resulted in a process by which at least three Bush court nominees will receive an up or down vote, starting with Owen.

The Energy Bill passed by the House Thursday includes a controversial provision that would exempt an increasingly popular drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Clean Drinking Water Act. Opponents of the exemption say the technique has been known to contaminate drinking water.

The House of Representatives approves an overhaul of the nation's bankruptcy laws, voting 302 to 126 in favor of a bill that will make it more difficult for people to erase debts by declaring bankruptcy. The Senate passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act last month.

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says the Bush administration will adjust the No Child Left Behind Act in response to opposition from educators and state lawmakers. The most significant change allows schools to exempt more students with disabilities from state testing programs.

The Pentagon is expected to replace Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as the top U.S. commander in Iraq. President Bush called Sanchez "exemplary," and officials say his transfer is part of a long-planned reorganization. Nevertheless, the move leaves the impression in some quarters that the administration is not satisfied with Sanchez's performance in Iraq. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

Delegates to a United Nations wildlife conference have agreed to ease a 13-year-old global ban on ivory trading. The decision is a victory for southern African nations, but conservationists see it as a defeat for elephants. NPR's John Nielsen reports.

Director Baz Luhrmann is dead on in his assertion that Shakespeare wrote for a broad audience. In fact, if Shakespeare were writing today he'd probably be doing films or television. We tend to forget that Shakespeare's plays were first and foremost popular entertainment. He wrote of and for his times, and had the kind of pop appeal and commercial savvy that Steven Spielberg exemplifies today.