(Pictured: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on stage on June 26, 2000.)

(This post is a long-overdue request, from a reader who asked if I would move this feature into the new millennium.)

June 26, 2000, was a Monday. All three broadcast network newscasts lead tonight with the announcement that for the first time, the human genome has been mapped. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair made the announcement revealing the first DNA sequence at the White House today. Also in the news today: the Supreme Court has reaffirmed by a 7-2 margin that suspects must be read their Miranda rights at the time of arrest. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissent. Debate continues over how the United States should spend its budget surplus, and there has been a new court filing in the custody case of six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. Character actor Logan Ramsey, best known for appearances in Walking Tall, Star Trek, M*A*S*H, and Scrooged, just a few of his many movie and TV roles from the 50s to the 90s, dies at age 79.

Sports fans are still buzzing over ABC’s recent announcement that this fall, comedian Dennis Miller will join play-by-play man Al Michaels and color analyst Dan Fouts in the Monday Night Football booth. There’s a partial schedule in Major League Baseball today. Only two of the six division leaders are in action: NL West-leading Arizona beats Houston 6-1 and NL Central-leading St. Louis loses to Cincinnati 3-2. Also in the National League, the San Diego Padres light up Orel Hershiser for eight runs in the second inning and then hold off the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-5. It will be the final appearance of Hershiser’s 18-year big-league career.

The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list is led by The Indwelling, the seventh book in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The top New York Times nonfiction book is Flags of Our Fathers, the story of the Iwo Jima flag-raisers, by James Bradley and Ron Powers. Top movies at the box office over the weekend were Me, Myself and Irene starring Jim Carrey and the animated Chicken Run. They knock off last week’s 1-2 tandem, Shaft and Gone in 60 Seconds. On TV tonight, ABC has the highest rated program, an edition of Peter Jennings Reporting called “The Search for Jesus.” CBS presents two episodes of The King of Queens plus Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker, and the news show 48 Hours. On NBC, it’s Dateline NBC, Law and Order, and Third Watch. Fox presents That 70s Show, Titus, and Ally McBeal.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are wrapping up their 1999-2000 reunion tour with a run of shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Springsteen’s performance of “American Skin (41 Shots),” about the 1999 murder of Amadou Diallo by four New York City police officers, has caused some fans to boo, especially cops among the crowds. Pearl Jam plays Hamburg, Germany, and the Dave Matthews Band plays Cincinnati. NSYNC plays Lexington, Kentucky, and Coldplay does a radio concert in the Netherlands. On the Billboard Hot 100, “Be With You” by Enrique Iglesias is #1, taking over the top spot from “Try Again” by Aaliyah. “Everything You Want” by Vertical Horizon is #3, and Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” is #4. “Breathe” by Faith Hill is #5 in its 34th week on the Hot 100. “Higher” by Creed, currently at #11, is also in its 34th week. Neither is the oldest record on the Hot 100, however: that’s “Smooth” by Santana with Rob Thomas, at #33 in its 48th week. “Amazed” by Lonestar is in its 47th week and still at #25. The #1 album of the week is The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem; Oops!…I Did It Again by Britney Spears is at #2.

In suburban Madison, Wisconsin, a couple who have just moved to town are getting settled in their new place. They are both adjusting to new jobs, although three months in, he’s already decided he doesn’t like his. He’s still figuring out how to manage his immediate supervisor who, in an earlier life, was a tutor for Aaliyah. It doesn’t help matters that a friend and former colleague from Iowa City visited over the weekend to remind him how much he misses it.

Programming Reminder: This weekend is the 50th anniversary of the Iola People’s Fair, a Wisconsin rock festival that featured a riot involving bikers and fans. I talked with a guy who was there, and also at Wisconsin’s other big 1970 rock festival, Sound Storm. That conversation is here and I hope you will listen to it and share it with people who might be interested.