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The Obama administration opposes a bipartisan Senate compromise — to the frustration of some of its usual allies. The White House says provisions in the defense bill would tie its hands when it comes to handling some terrorism cases.

After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer, he asked Walter Isaacson to write his biography. The new book tells the personal story of the man behind the personal computer — from his childhood in California to his thoughts on family, friends, death and religion.

Fifty years ago Norton Juster sat down and tried to remember the confusion and dislocation of childhood. His memories became a book, and The Phantom Tollbooth was born. In this essay, Juster looks back at his beloved novel, and the bored, disconnected child who grew up to write it.

Did you really think the apples you lifted out of a wooden crate at a grocery store came from a local farm? Think again. As Martin Lindstrom explains in his new book, Brandwashed, companies use many tricks to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy.

In Sybil Exposed, Debbie Nathan explores the life of Shirley Mason — the psychiatric patient whose life was portrayed in the 1973 book and 1976 TV movie. Mason later admitted to her psychiatrist that she'd made the whole thing up — but not before the story manufactured a psychiatric phenomenon.

Hear the gorgeous voice of a young opera singer with his ears tuned to the great tenors of the past.

"Poetry holds the knowledge that we are alive and that we know we're going to die," poet Marie Howe tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. One of Howe's most famous poems, "What the Living Do," was recently included in The Penguin Anthology of 20th-Century American Poetry.

A scientist has used new genetic-sequencing technologies to identify the strain of anthrax in the 2001 attacks, the cause of anthrax contamination in European heroin, and the source of a cholera outbreak in Haiti.

Consumers aren't the only ones paying attention to the quality ratings of private Medicare coverage. Health plans stand to make big bucks by scoring higher in Medicare's rating system.

Russell Banks' latest is an uneven effort to excavate and redeem the dregs of modern society. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the novel — about porn addiction and sexual predators — is compelling in a low-grade, nightmarish sort of way.