Fifteen separate wildfires are burning out of control in California, from north of Santa Barbara all the way to San Diego.

In last night's televised debate, Republicans fought over who was the most Republican; and Hillary Clinton continues to take heat from democrats and republicans running for president. Our political roundtable features Kay Henderson, news director for Radio Iowa, and John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC and senior contributing writer for the Wall Street Journal.

The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch tomorrow, one of the last remaining missions before NASA winds up the program in 2010. We speak with Pat Duggins, longtime reporter on NASA for NPR and WMFE, and author of the new book "Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program".

The northwest passage, the waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans over the top of the world, is typically packed with ice. After two attempts, Roger Swanson, a Minnesota pig farmer, finally made it through on his 57 foot boat, Cloud Nine.

Writer Shalom Auslander has been shaking his fist at God for decades. "Foreskin's Lament" is his memoir of growing up as an Orthodox Jew in rural New York. Auslander's rant against the fundamentalist religion of his youth is a funny, angry, and moving attempt to exorcise the punishing God that still grumbles in his head.