Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced today he will be stepping down in February, unless his successor is approved before then. Ridge is the first man to hold the post, which was created in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. He was given the unenviable task of creating a new bureaucracy out [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court heard yesterday oral arguments on whether or not the federal government has a constitutional authority to arrest patients in states that allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to them.
Patients say they need it to take the edge off their pain. The federal government says allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana could open the [...]

It’s conventional wisdom: stress ages people. But now that theory is making the leap to scientific fact. A team of researchers have discovered how chronic stress physically affects cells in a way that accelerates aging.
Hear Washington Post science writer Rob Stein talk about the study’s findings.
Guests:
Rob Stein, National science reporter for the Washington Post

Saying that he needs a break from public service, the President of the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume, announced today that he is stepping down as leader of the nation’s largest civil right organization.
Nine years ago, the former Congressman inherited an organization tarnished by scandal and riddled with debt. He has shepherded it into an era of [...]

There’s something for everyone in the $388-billion 2005 Omnibus spending bill that Congress passed last week. It allocates money to projects like the B.B. King Museum, the Tiger Woods Foundation, and the swanky Biltmore Hotel in Florida, while making big cuts in veterans’ health care.
Is this a way to run a government? With federal debt [...]

There are few books that can stir up as much passion as the Bible. When Professor of Hebrew Robert Alter set out to create a new translation he knew he was on sensitive ground. But Alter says the translations that Christians, Jews, and secularists have been relying on for years are fraught with what he [...]

For centuries, scholars didn’t believe William Shakespeare could have written the plays and sonnets that bore his name. They were too sophisticated and literary for a son of simple country parents, they claimed.
Now, in his new book, “Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare,” scholar Stephen Greenblatt has set out to show how religious, [...]

Today, Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments against and for legalization of medical marijuana. The Court will decide whether or not individual states can let seriously ill patients ease their pain by smoking marijuana, a drug the federal government has designated illegal.
The Bush administration is appealing a lower court decision that allows two California women [...]

The crisis over the November 21 presidential election results that has unfolded in the streets of Kiev during the last few days is escalating by the minute.
Supporters of Prime Minister Yanukovich, who has claimed victory, are threatening to secede if the Moscow-backed candidate is not sworn in. Backers of the opposition candidate Victor Yushchenko have [...]

What makes a peron a politician? And what makes that politician a larger-than-life legend or a “pol”? From William Jennings Bryant to Ronald Reagan, writers have been digging deep into the persona of political leaders and bringing them to light in prose.
In his new book, “Pols: Great Writers on American Politicians from Byran to Reagan,” [...]

The New Yorker was referred to as a “comic weekly” when it first hit the stands in 1925. Humor has been a mainstay of the magazine ever since, with wits from A.J. Leibling to Dorothy Parker, and of course, the cartoons.
To celebrate that legacy of laughter, contemporary New Yorker regulars, humorists Christopher Buckley, Calvin [...]

The son of singer-songwriters Loudon Wainwright III and French-Canadian Kate McGarrigle, Rufus Wainwright grew up surrounded by music. He began studying piano at the age of 6 and began touring with his mother at the age of 13.
His music has been described as something between baroque and pop, with splashes of cabaret and emotional, complex, [...]

Some of America’s most revered writers have made their reputations in the pages of the New Yorker Magazine. In 1999, the magazine let its work jump from the printed page to public venues for the first New Yorker Festival, where writers read their work.
Among many of the fiction writers who read from their [...]

Thanksgiving is a famous American holiday that celebrates the country’s good fortune, its pluck and prosperity. But don’t think for a moment, says Washington Post correspondent T.R. Reid, that blessings and pluck are the province of America alone.
In a new book, T.R. Reid says Europe, not the U.S., is the emerging superpower on a roll. [...]

The season of excess begins tomorrow with Thanksgiving and continues on to Christmas and New Year’s, says Newsday columnist Susan Cheever.
In this radio diary, she reminds us to put aside our petty family squabbles and super-sized appetites and remember why we celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place.
Guests:
Susan Cheever, columnist for Newsday, her latest book is [...]

Director Oliver Stone’s new movie “Alexander,” starring Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie, brings the life of Alexander the Great to the big screen.
Alexander the Great was just 32 years old when he died 2,300 years ago in Babylon - modern day Iraq. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan and more were all his. They [...]

Veteran newsman Dan Rather will step down as the CBS network’s top news anchor after almost a quarter of a century.
Rather, who was embroiled in a journalism scandal last September over his reporting about President Bush’s service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War, is leaving his role early next year.
Rather is the second [...]

As violence riddles Iraq, the American-backed interim Iraqi government is struggling to train enough troops to ensure safety for the January 30, 2005 elections.
Hear New York Times Reporter Edward Wong from Baghdad discuss whether Iraq will be ready for the elections.
Guests:
Edward Wong, New York Times Reporter in Baghdad

In the spring of 2003, the Bush administration sent Noah Feldman to give advice on the drafting of an Iraqi constitution and the country’s fledgling democracy. Now, Feldman says, the U.S. must stay in Iraq until that democracy is real.
Feldman thinks democracy is not only just the best political arrangement for Iraq but the [...]

Thousands of Ukrainians circled the country’s parliament building in Kiev today. The crowds in the capital’s streets have been growing ever since Russian-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential vote. Protestors say the polls were rigged and want Parliament to invalidate the results.
Today there was no quorum but that didn’t stop [...]

Guests:
Tom Warner, Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times

U.S. President Bush came away with a clear message from an economic forum of Pacific Rim countries this weekend: stop the decline of the U.S. dollar. The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan warned last Friday that the U.S. needs to change course or face the consequences.
The worst-case scenario of a freefall [...]

Is religion “ignorance with wings?” That’s what author Sam Harris claims in his new book, “The End of Faith.” He sets out to close the door on organized religion and argues for a world without Christianity, Islam or Judaism.
As religious wars and faith-based politics heat up around the world, Harris writes that text-based faiths are [...]

NBA players involved in last Friday night’s brawl with fans in the match between the Detroit and Indiana teams are facing suspensions and possible criminal charges.
Fights and broken rules are nothing new in professional athletics but something strange is boiling and the explosive violence of last Friday’s fight shot out at America like steam from [...]

On Point host Tom Ashbrook and news analyst Jack Beatty look back at this week’s major news:
1) Colin Powell resigns as Secretary of State and Condoleezza Rice is nominated to take his place.
2) The Commanding General of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, John Sattler, says Fallujah has been liberated from insurgents.
3) A Marine is caught [...]

Jean Reinhardt, the son of a traveling entertainer, was known to the world by his Gypsy name “Django,” which means “I awake.” He grew up in a gypsy encampment just outside of Paris, performing as a young boy in the city’s dance halls.
After a caravan fire permanently mutilated his left hand at the age of [...]

This Wednesday in New York, Lily Tuck won this year’s National Book Award for her novel “The News From Paraguay.”
Tuck’s novel is the fictionalized tale of Ella Lynch, the Irish-born mistress of 19th-century Paraguayan leader Francisco Solano Lopez.
In this radio diary, Tuck reads an excerpt from her novel.
Guests:
Lily Tuck, author and winner of [...]

This week, U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said he had no choice but to follow prevailing sentencing guidelines for drug convictions when he imposed a 55-year sentence on a first-time 25-year-old offender who sold marijuana to a police informant in 2002. Cassell urged the defendant’s lawyer to appeal but it is unlikely an appeal would [...]

At the close of the dedication of his presidential library in Little Rock, AK, Bill Clinton took to the podium in the pouring rain. He thanked everyone who had made the day possible, and did his best to characterize his legacy. Then the former President made a remarkable call for unity in a country [...]

Now that the William J. Clinton Presidential Center is officially open in Little Rock, AK, debates about the 42nd U.S. president’s legacy are kicking into high gear.
Did Clinton start America down the road to political polarization or was he able to tow the middle line more than any other leader in recent history? What [...]

Colin Powell said today that Iran is deceiving the United States and secretly continuing activities to build nuclear weapons. Iran has said that its nuclear activities are confined to generating nuclear fuel.
Tune in to hear the latest on Iran and its nuclear capabilities from the Christian Science Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi.
Guests:
Howard LaFranchi, reporter for the [...]

The United States’ efforts to combat terrorism both at home and abroad have brought the country into uncharted legal waters. The war on terror has fueled a tension between the push towards greater national security and the need to safeguard the civil liberties that America is based on.
Harvard University’s Long-Term Legal Strategy Project for Preserving [...]

Gay marriage opponents argue that legal recognition of same-sex unions will lead to the destruction of the institution of marriage. But new analysis shows that the state with the lowest divorce rate in the nation is, in fact, Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriage is legal.
The study numbers show that “red states,” the [...]

For those blue-state Americans who are still struggling with President Bush’s victory over John Kerry earlier this month, Rudi Kischer may have some answers.
The Vancouver, British Columbia immigration lawyer is holding seminars across the Western United States to inform disgruntled Americans how they can move north of the border. The seminars are planned in the [...]

In many ways, Election Day 2004 felt like a dramatic starting point. There were calls for unity and reminders of the essential moderateness of the majority of Americans. But the howls of triumph and lamentations of defeat were louder.
Today’s America is divided. Its new map has a great gulf cutting through its center along [...]

This week, a U.S. marine shot a wounded Iraqi prisoner in Fallujah, and an NBC reporter caught it on film. Now the video is being watched in homes thousands of miles away from where dead bodies are booby-trapped and shots burst from rubble.
While the iron-clad rules of war apply in the smashed streets of [...]

Harry Reid is the Democrats’ new top dog in the U.S. Senate. The 64-year-old Nevadan takes over from Senator Tom Daschle, who was defeated for re-election on November 2nd in South Dakota.
Reid takes command of a party that will have only 44 seats when the new Congress convenes in January. That’s fewer than [...]

New CIA chief Porter Goss has been at America’s intelligence agency for just seven weeks and already two top CIA officials have quit. Also, CIA deputy director John McLaughlin has stepped down for what he says are “purely personal” reasons.
With tensions running high between veteran CIA officers and the new leadership, many in Washington are [...]

It’s been a year since the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But on Election Day 2004, voters passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriages in eleven U.S. states.
Since the historic Massachusetts decision in the case of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health came down, President George W. [...]

Secretary of State Colin Powell has resigned his post but will stay on until his replacement is named. Sources say U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth and Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice are leading candidates for replacing the former four-star general.
Powell had the aura of a golden boy when he first took [...]

Many pundits have begun calling President Bush’s overwhelming support among Conservative Christians, “The God Gap.” In a closely-divided America, the perception of Democrats as a godless party was likely the difference between victory and defeat.
Jim Wallis is the editor of Sojourners Magazine, which bills itself as a progressive Christian commentary on faith, politics and culture. [...]

U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies have pushed into every area of Fallujah, the center of intense resistance to the American occupation since the U.S. invasion of Iraq began, and broken Sunni resistance into isolated pockets.
After a week of tough street-to-street combat, the U.S. is close to achieving its military objective, but violence has erupted [...]

From Arafat’s death to fighting in Fallujah and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s resignation, On Point host Tom Ashbrook and On Point news analyst Jack Beatty take a look back at this week’s major news.
Guests:

Dr. Alfred Kinsey, also known as Dr. Sex, revolutionized the way Americans thought about sex. His meticulous sex surveys, now known as the Kinsey Report, offered the first statistical analysis of human sexuality.
Classrooms filled with crowds of students eager to take the professor’s marriage course. He inspired Hugh Hefner, and Cole Porter immortalized [...]

The passing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has left many feeling optimistic that the stalled Middle East peace process may be given a jolt. Among those expressing hope today was Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair was in Washington meeting with President Bush. Speaking to reporters at the White House, he vowed to do [...]

Today, Scott Peterson was found guilty of murdering his wife and unborn child and could face the death penalty. The case of the former fertilizer salesman has rivited the nation.
Hear Karen Breslau, San Francisco Bureau Chief for Newsweek examine the verdict and America’s growing fascination with high-profile trials.
Guests:
Karen Breslau, San Francisco Bureau Chief, Newsweek