Library Consortium of Eastern Idaho

It took over five years for Nathaniel Rich to finish his first novel — maybe because he was writing The Mayor's Tongue secretly, first as a college student, and then while writing film criticism during the day.

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Abortion-rights backers want quick action from the president-elect, although they may not press for sweeping changes. Obama has said he is looking to find common ground on reproductive health issues.

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Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, said he denied the license out of concern for any children the couple might have. He denied being a racist and said in his experience most interracial marriages do not last long.

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The 6-year-old boy feared lost after a hot-air balloon he was believed to be traveling in came down has been found safe in his home. The balloon was owned by the boy's parents; it was tethered behind their house.

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President Obama praised the people New Orleans for not giving up after the city was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The comments came at a town hall meeting during Obama's first visit to the city after being elected president.

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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released Thursday after being hospitalized briefly following a reaction to medication. It was the second time Ginsburg has been hospitalized in the past month.

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More than 150 people have been arrested this week in protests over the government's failure to improve the lives of poor South Africans since democracy replaced apartheid in 1994.

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The conservative radio personality lashed out at NFL union leader DeMaurice Smith, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the media a day after being dropped from a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams.

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Social Security recipients won't be getting a cost-of-living increase next year, but the White House has backed a plan to give them a one-time payment of $250, calling it an extension of the stimulus program. Some suggest the plan is as much an investment in politics as in the economy.

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A report from the White House detailing the effects of the stimulus says businesses that got federal contracts under the program saved or created more than 30,000 jobs in the program's opening months. Broader data on local spending won't be available until late this month.

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The Social Security Administration says there will be no cost-of-living increase next year for more than 50 million recipients of Social Security. The announcement comes a day after President Obama called for $250 payments for seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities.

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Attorney General Eric Holder says the Obama administration's January deadline for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba will be tough to meet. But he tells NPR that a decision on which detainees will stand trial and what kind of court they will face will be made in the coming month.

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The 6-year-old Colorado boy was in a cardboard box in the garage attic. His brother had said he had crawled into a box or basket attached to the balloon, which floated off. The flight lasted more than two hours, spanned 50 miles, set off a frantic search and kept television and Internet audiences captivated.

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Six-year-old floats away from family's Colorado home in balloon — it was thought.

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The Kindle, the iPhone and other electronic book readers have changed the way many people read — and left some in the publishing industry desperate for new ways to make money. A new venture from the TheDailyBeast.com, will soon upend the traditional publishing model.

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New figures show that the stimulus bill has created more than 30,000 private-sector jobs. The numbers are just preliminary, but that hasn't stopped Democrats and Republicans from jumping on them in the battle to define the stimulus program as a success or failure.

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Secondhand smoke raises heart attack risks, and bans on public smoking lower them.

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As a child, Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe was initially seduced by Joseph Conrad's novella about an Englishman's journey up the Congo. But then he read the book more closely, and he realized that Conrad's portrayal of Africans was not a humane one.

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Scientists sometimes have a hard time communicating new research in a way that makes a more general audience care. In his new book Don't Be Such A Scientist, Randy Olson — a marine biology professor turned filmmaker — shares his hypotheses about why scientists need to communicate their substance with a little more style.

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The wave of recent terrorist attacks across Pakistan — including simultaneous strikes Thursday in Lahore, killing dozens — reveals a militancy that may be more robust than authorities previously thought. Analysts say it is a test of wills between Pakistan's security forces and the Taliban.

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