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The Labor Department's employment figures for the month of December are a bit stronger than expected. And economists expect the labor market will remain relatively strong despite a slide in the housing industry.

In 2006, plenty of obituaries made the front page, from a former president to the Godfather of Soul. But hidden deeper in the newspaper were people who quietly made a difference in fields like jazz, ecology, and civil rights. We look back at more modest lives that made a difference.

U.S. military forces have long planned the operation under way in Somalia, training Ethiopian troops and gathering intelligence on the ground. They have awaited an opportunity to attack Islamist extremists there.

Edward Jewell's journal entries about life as a combat doctor during the Iraq War are featured in Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front.

This week, Steve Jobs announced Apple's latest product: the iPhone. After the success of the iPod, it seems Apple can do no wrong, but the company has had previous failures in its attemps to branch out into consumer electronics. Mike McGuire, a technology analyst with Gartner, Inc., speaks with John Ydstie.

President Bush sits down with NPR's Juan Williams for his first broadcast interview since the State of the Union. They discuss the environment, health care, the federal budget and the quality of intelligence coming out of Iran.

Microsoft is about to unveil its first new operating system in a number of years, amid much fanfare. But a big question remains: Is Vista any good?

Kurdish authorities are trying to preserve an ancient citadel above Irbil that local historians say has been a site of human habitation for 7,000 years. But in order to preserve it, they've had to relocate its most recent habitants — refugee Kurds.

The situation in Iraq is very bad and getting worse. That's the judgment of a new National Intelligence Estimate that represents the views of all 16 U.S. spy agencies. The report also says that Iraqi leaders will be "hard pressed" to stabilize the country by the middle of 2008.

Last week from Baghdad, Anne Garrels introduced us to Sabah Mohammed, a Sunni who lived in a Baghdad neighborhood that came under frequent attack by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's forces. On Monday, Mohammed was shot to death by Shiite militiamen. One of NPR's Iraqi reporters witnessed the killing.

Few things are more satisfying on a winter's night than a heap of meat, vegetables and crust in a luscious sauce. Once the height of culinary style, the potpie is undergoing a retro-food resurgence.

Communities on the Canadian border say that increasingly strict identification rules since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are threatening the cozy neighborliness of their way of life. Their concerns led them to persuade Congress to postpone and water down the passport rules for land-crossings.

Conventional journalism didn't quite fit Molly Ivins, the liberal political columnist and author. Ivins, claimed Wednesday by breast cancer at 62, bedeviled politicians — especially those of her native Texas — with witty political critiques.

In testimony Monday, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that former White House aide Lewis Libby spoke of CIA operative Valerie Plame before the date that Libby had told investigators. Libby is accused of perjury in the outing of Plame, the wife of a prominent war critic.

In a solo White House interview with NPR's Juan Williams Monday, President Bush spoke at length about international issues. But he also explained why he didn't mention Hurricane Katrina in his State of the Union address.

When member nations of the African Union meet this weekend, representatives hope to find a way to stabilize Somalia, where a weak government has beaten back Islamist forces with the help of Ethiopian troops. There is concern that the fighting will resume unless peacekeepers are introduced into the country.

Liberal political columnist Molly Ivins died yesterday at the age of 62. In her long career, she wrote for newspapers such as The Texas Observer and The New York Times, and her columns were widely syndicated. These interviews originally aired on Oct. 3, 1991 and Oct. 7, 2003.

President Bush made a surprise visit to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, scolding corporate America for lavish salaries paid to its chief executives. "America's corporate boardrooms must step up to their responsibility," Bush said. But he said the government should not force executives to give up their perks and high pay.

A federal grand jury charges a Mississippi man in the 1964 killings of two black men in one of the few remaining unsolved cases from the civil rights era. James Ford Seale pleaded not guilty today in Jackson, Miss. Seale, a former sheriff's deputy, is believed to have been a Klansman.

NPR correspondent Juan Williams talks about his conversation with President Bush, the president's first broadcast interview since last Tuesday's State of the Union Address.

The first Catholic priest to be elected to Congress has died. Father Robert Drinan was a Vietnam War critic who served for 10 years in the House, until Pope John Paul II ordered him to chose between Congress and the priesthood. Drinan was 86.

Brazil holds its presidential election Sunday. The incumbent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, holds the lead, but there have been charges of corruption that may result in a runoff with his main opponent, former state governor Geraldo Alckmin of the centrist Social Democracy Party.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr looks back on many years of Washington scandals -- usually involving sex or money.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress Friday after being confronted with sexually explicit Internet messages he reportedly sent to at least one, and possibly several, underage former male pages.

After disgraced Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned Friday amid a scandal over suggestive messages to Congressional pages, other congressional candidates who received contributions from Foley's office are struggling to decide what to do with the money.