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President Bush taps former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to head the Homeland Security Department. Kerik was the top police official in New York during the Sept. 11 attacks. Hear NPR's Renee Montagne and WNYC's Andrea Bernstein.

Blacksmith Angelo Garro forges and forages, recreating in wrought iron and in cooking the life he left behind in Sicily. The Kitchen Sisters join Garro along the coast of Northern California as he follows the seasons, harvesting the wild for his kitchen.

Writer Suzan-Lori Parks has won acclaim for depictions of African-American life. The author of Topdog/Underdog discusses two of her favorite dramatic scenes, from The Sound of Music and Taxi Driver.

In Fremont, Calif., immigrant students are earning top grades, and their affluent parents are threatening to create their own school in order to keep standards high. Hear NPR's Claudio Sanchez.

Essayist Bonny Wolf grew up in the Midwest, where it wasn't always easy to find oysters for Thanksgiving. She tries to eat them every chance she gets, holiday dinner or not.

Thanksgiving approaches, followed by the rest of the holiday season. In a holiday-eating preview, NPR's Susan Stamberg bypasses the turkey — and heads right for dessert. Specifically chocolate. But she does manage to insinuate her favorite holiday recipe into the mix.

Swarms of desert locusts many miles long descended on West Africa this summer and fall -- the worst invasion of these voracious pests in more than 15 years.

President Bush says reforming social security will be a top priority during his second term. He wants workers to be able to divert some of their payroll taxes into private accounts. They could invest that money in stocks and bonds to save for their own retirement. NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports on what privatization could mean, and how it might be done.

Official Washington had barely caught its breath yesterday over the resignation of Attorney General John Ashcroft, when President Bush announced his new choice for the top law enforcement job: White House counsel and longtime Bush confidant Alberto Gonzales. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.

More conservative federal judges and a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage top the agenda for President Bush's second term, according to a conservative author. NPR's Renee Montagne speaks to Richard Viguerie, co-author of America's Right Turn.