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New Orleans today began allowing residents from eight of the city's 18 postal zip codes to return home as part of a phased return program. Many areas of the city still lack electricity and clean water.

The 20 finalists for the 2004 National Book Awards were announced today, and for the first time in the awards' 55-year history, all five of the fiction finalists are women. Greta Cunningham of Minnesota Public Radio reports.

What do you get when you combine a champion pitcher with a five-time World Series slugger? Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson duke it out in their new book Sixty Feet, Six Inches.

Commentator Daniel Pinkwater has a few reflections on those creatures known as buttons---they date back to ancient history, they eat lint, most are harmless and their nests can sometimes be found in corners of drawers.

Around the country, buyers are scooping up real estate, knocking down old houses, and building grand new mansions. It's a trend that's finally coming to Cape Cod, birthplace of the original summer cottage. Some residents worry the demolitions are slowly erasing the cape's traditional character. From member station WBUR, Monica Brady-Myerov reports.

Daud Tulam spent 18 years in isolation in the New Jersey State Prison. Now free, he finds it difficult to make eye contact, make small talk, or be around other people, including his family.

The Fire Department of New York releases oral histories and audio from Sept. 11, 2001. Crowded radio frequencies may explain in part why firefighters stayed in the north tower of the World Trade Center 29 minutes after the south tower fell.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt taught school for 30 years. Relationships formed with 12,000 mostly teenaged students form the basis of a new memoir, Teacher Man. He tells Jacki Lyden about life in the classroom.

Music critic Josh duLac looks at some of this week's new releases, including albums from Lil Wayne, My Morning Jacket and Solomon Burke.

Thievery Corporation is out with their fifth album, Radio Retaliation. Rob Garza and Eric Hilton talk about the formation of their popular duo and share their musical influences from around the world.

NPR's Eric Weiner reports that the Middle East peace process was undermined again today by more violence between Israel and Palestinians-- with suicide bombings in Gaza and the shooting deaths of two Palestinians in the West Bank. The latest round of violence began with Israel's decision to proceed with a new settlement in Arab East Jerusalem.

Noah talks to Jodie Scott of Shoreline, Washington, just outside of Seattle. She went to buy a pump to pump out her flooded first floor, and when she got back, she parked her car around the corner from her house. The next day the car ended up at the bottom of a 60 foot deep, 150 foot wide sinkhole.