  We review some recent results on b decays relevant to future CP violation
studies. In particular, some new data on rare hadronic B decays will be
presented, as well as inclusive searches for evidence for gluonic penguins and
first hints of final state interaction phases in B decays to D* rho. The
results discussed are based on data collected by the CLEO experiment including
up to 5.8 x 10 ^6 B Bbar pairs.
