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In Michigan, unions have bet big on ballot proposals to stem a tide of Republican legislation curtailing organized labor's ability to bargain contracts, collect dues, and raise money for political races. Their top goal is to make sure the state legislature cannot pass a so-called right-to-work law that outlaws compulsory union membership. They also want to reverse a law that allows the state to temporarily take over financially struggling local governments and scrap public employee contracts.

When Mitt Romney said he would cut PBS funding in the first presidential debate — and singled out Big Bird, whom he said he liked a lot — he perhaps inadvertently introduced the befeathered yellow children's icon smack into the center of political debate. President Obama approved a cable-only commercial dinging Romney for going after Sesame Street rather than Wall Street, but Romney appears to think he has a winning hand — castigating the president for focusing on a profitable educational puppet empire rather than big issues, like terrorism in the Arab world.

Robert Siegel talks to UCLA Law Professor and author Richard Sander about the impact on California's education system when the state banned Affirmative Action.

Graphic novelist Chris Ware's latest, Building Stories, is a collection in many formats, following the (mostly) sad and lonely lives of the inhabitants of a Chicago brownstone. But reviewer Glen Weldon says the work is colorful, intricate and ultimately beautiful.

Novelists Daniel Woodrell, Christopher Moore and Chuck Palahniuk confront the darker sides of life with varying degrees of humor, while writer Susan Orlean looks at the life of dog star Rin Tin Tin, and Wade Davis reassesses George Mallory's historic climbs on Mount Everest.

Photographer Edward Curtis decided to chronicle the experience of the vanishing Native American tribes at the end of the 19th century. It was an unbelievably ambitious project that would define Curtis, his work and his legacy.

Round 9 of Three Minute Fiction is currently underway. Readers from more than a dozen graduate programs are plowing through the nearly 4,000 entries received. Host Guy Raz shares one of the favorite picks so far, The Generous Application of Grease by Stephen Fratus of Walnut Creek, Calif. You can read the full story below along with other stories at www.npr.org/threeminutefiction.

Mark Helprin's sweeping midcentury novel, In Sunlight and In Shadow, describes a postwar New York in limbo. Helprin borrowed from his own experiences to write this tale of love and familial obligations. "It's all based on what I know and what I knew," he says.

Dennis Lehane's latest novel moves from the modern Boston of books like Mystic River to Prohibition-era Florida. Reviewer Jennifer Reese says the story is weighed down by too much lovingly researched period detail, and not enough attention to character development.

Dennis Lehane's latest novel moves from the modern Boston of books like Mystic River to Prohibition-era Florida. Reviewer Jennifer Reese says the story is weighed down by too much lovingly researched period detail, and not enough attention to character development.