Tonight, Extension 720 takes a look at the plethora of scandals that have recently plagued the City of Chicago. JAY STEWART, president of the Better Government Association, DICK KAY of NBC5 and TIM NOVAK of the Chicago Sun-Times will analyze the hired truck program, the restaurant at Millennium Park, and all the scandals in between.

Information on future programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

WILL DEMOCRACY COME TO THE MIDDLE EAST? And, if so, who will "bring it" and will it eliminate the terrorist threat? Some good questions are asked, and surprising answers provided, in this Foreign Policy essay by two staffers from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

GETTING TO KNOW AL-GAMMA AL-ISLAMIYYA...and the many other "local franchise" manifestations of al-Qaeda is the speciality of the researcher interviewed here for Front Page magazine. How to ferret them out and decommission them remains the essential question.

BEWARE THE MAN WITH THE (COMPARATIVELY) SHORT INDEX FINGER. Research reported here supposedly demonstrates that he will be "more aggressive" than those with longer index fingers. Why? How? It has something to do with testosterone as this report from Medical News Today will explain.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO RELIGION IN EUROPE? Apart from Islam, that is! Some fascinating new developmemts and some striking cross-national diferences are reported in this informative article from the Christian Science Monitor.

IDEAS DO, INDEED, HAVE CONSEQUENCES...as witness the influence, according to the U.K. Telegraph, of a former Soviet dissident upon the president of the United States. Read on.

WHAT TO MAKE OF D.H. LAWRENCE: Some seventy-five years after his death the argument over his worth as a literary figure persists--well, in England at least. Here, the BBC reviews the issues in an article that almost makes one want to go read (not reread) Sons and Lovers.

THE MAN FROM ABC TELEVISION JUDGES THE "PUBLIC" VARIETY: George Will has some hard words for PBS and--despite his involvement in overtly commercial television--he makes a rather convincing case for eliminating the federal investment (now 15% of total budget) in LBJ's gift to the American living room.

LARRY SUMMERS AS PRISONER IN A SOVIET SHOW-TRIAL...is the way one senior faculty member at Harvard sees her embattled president. This report from the quads sheds additional and disturbing light on the ordeal of the former Secretary of the Treasury who decided to go home again.

APPRECIATING ALBERT: On the one hundreth anniversary of Einstein's five relativity papers--and the fiftieth anniversary of his death--this intellectually rich commemoration was offered by the president and rector of the Central European University in Budapest. Apart from the idea-rich content of this speech, the links provided are of unusual and special interest.

A GREAT GOSPEL COLLECTION...featuring, among many others, Patsy Cline, Brook Benton, Elvis and the great recording of Oh Happy Day by the Statler Brothers.

Tonight on Extension 720: The United States’ current relationship with Iran is at a level of tension and hostility that has not been seen perhaps since the fall of the shah in 1979. Iran has openly declared its quest for a nuclear weapon, the United States has declared its intention to seek democracy throughout the world, and in recent weeks, reports of U.S. spy planes flying over weapons sites in Iran have caused a further split. What will the next few months and years bring? Tonight, we will explore what’s happening in Tehran with AL J. VENTER, a war correspondent and author of the new book Iran's Nuclear Option: Tehran's Quest For The Atom Bomb, and STEPHEN KINZER, veteran New York Times correspondent and author of the recent book All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, and GUITY NASHAT, professor of history at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Information on future programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off.

Today's Milt's File is available at http://wgnradio.com/shows/ex720/links.htm.

Tonight on Extension 720: The incomparable Peter Ustinov once wrote “A diplomat these days is nothing but a head-waiter who’s allowed to sit down occasionally.” The life of a diplomat is indeed a blend of propriety and politics, a delicate balance that is successfully achieved by a select few. Tonight, we will be talking with three consuls general based in Chicago about their travels throughout the world and what it is like to serve their countries abroad. Among our guests will be ANDREW SEETON, consul general for Great Britain, ELISABETH KEHRER, consul general for Austria, and ROBERT deLEEUW, consul general for the Netherlands.

Information on other upcoming programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.