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Professor William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguist and author of the new book Atlas of North American English Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change, says there is a shift of vowel sounds in the inland northern cities. He calls it the "northern city shift."

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown blames Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other top agency officials for the inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina. Brown testified Friday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

President Bush maintains Congress gave his administration the power to eavesdrop on some domestic phone calls without warrants as part of broader "use of force" authorization. Many in Congress disagree.

While reporting on the torture scandal at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Jackie Spinner was nearly kidnapped. Shaken by the experience, the Washington Post journalist returned to work, spending a total of nine months in Iraq.

Ford Motor Company CEO Bill Ford says the automaker will cut up to 30,000 North American jobs by 2012. The moves are part of a restructuring plan that will see a number of manufacturing plants close, as well.

Journalist, novelist and playwright Thulani Davis traces her roots in My Confederate Kinfolk: a Twenty-First Century Freedwoman Discovers Her Roots. Among the revelations Davis uncovered was that her ancestors include a Scots-Irish clan of cotton planters as well as Africans from Sierra Leone.

The United Nations has appointed a new envoy to continue the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri last February. The initial report last fall implicated top Lebanese and Syrian security officials in Hariri's killing.

Two big surprises awaited Paul Bremer when he arrived in Iraq: that the country's chaos made it ripe for insurgency; and that the U.S. government would withhold additional troops. Bremer became the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in May of 2003.

Steve Inskeep talks with New York Times reporter James Risen about his new book, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. Risen first broke the news about the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping program, and says it's illustrative of the administration's behavior in the war on terror.

College football's national championship will be decided Wednesday when Texas faces defending champion Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Six games on Monday offered a wild series of warmups, while in a final preliminary on Tuesday night, Penn State and Florida State meet in the Orange Bowl.