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Host Debbie Elliott speaks with Richard Sutch and Susan Carter about numbers that tell the story of America. They've edited a new five-volume work, Historical Statistics of the United States. Today, Sutch and Carter discuss what the numbers tell us about the role of the U.S. Post Office in westward expansion.

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."

Madeleine Brand speaks with Washington Post homeland security correspondent Spencer Hsu about Friday's U.S. Senate committee hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Former FEMA director Michael Brown defended his own actions and laid much of the blame for the slow federal response on the Department of Homeland Security.

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.

For 100 years, sufferers of leprosy were banished to Molokai, an untamed Hawaiian island. A new book chronicles how paranoia forced thousands of people to live in exile.

Nominations for Academy Awards are announced in Los Angeles. Brokeback Mountain and Munich were among the best picture nominees, while the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line was shut out. Critic Kenneth Turan discusses the nominations with John Ydstie.

John Tayman's book The Colony tells the story of Molokai, the slice of Hawaiian paradise that was turned into an infamous 19th century leper colony. Tayman discusses the book with Renee Montagne.

Internet search engine Google is drawing praise from civil libertarians for its refusal to hand over records about the search requests of millions of its users to federal prosecutors. Government lawyers say they need the information to defend a law meant to protect children from online pornography.

Many Turks are confused by the early release of the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981. Mehmet Ali Agca was also convicted of the 1979 murder of a liberal newspaper editor in Turkey.