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With the peak of the winter lettuce-growing season in Southern California coming in Janury, a labor shortage is prompting fears of rotting crops. Growers say better border enforcement and better jobs have led to fewer migrant workers.

Just days before Hurricane Katrina hit, officials from state, local and federal agencies were hearing that this could very likely be the big one -- the one they knew could devastate the city. But National Guard troops still waited for an official plan and a chain of command to be established.

There are 35 presidential candidates and 44 parties running in Haiti's first elections since former President Jean Bertrand Aristide's ouster last year.

As the extent of Hurricane Katrina's threat to New Orleans became evident, trucks with water and ice were not positioned as planned. And when they were finally told to move, they were sent hundreds of miles away from most of the people in need.

As we reach the end of the year, U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser joins host Melissa Block to read a reflection — in prose — on welcoming in a new year, from his book Local Wonders.

The District of Columbia has developed plans to deal with a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. But much depends on local neighborhood officials, and some are not so confident about their ability to cope.

The Department of Energy has been quietly working on a grand plan for nuclear power to be included in next year's budget. Ideas for the Global Nuclear Energy Initiative include reprocessing nuclear fuel so it can be re-used in reactors -- a process the United States abandoned earlier.

A group that started out protesting illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border now is trying to shut down day laborers' centers sanctioned by local governments across the country. "The Minutemen" group says the centers help illegal immigrants.

NPR's Bob Mondello has an appreciation of playwright August Wilson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas, Fences and The Piano Lesson. Wilson died Sunday of liver cancer in Seattle. Mondello says that Wilson's dialogue was "musical" -- inspired by the blues and lyrical in its phrasing.

President Bush signed a sweeping energy bill into law Monday, and proponents say it should make the nation's electrical grid more reliable. But opponents contend the measure will make it easier for utility companies to play accounting games.