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Author Paul Auster reads "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story." The short story has no Santa Claus, no Christmas tree, and no brightly wrapped packages. And yet there's plenty of giving.

President Bush formally announces the selection of former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik to succeed Tom Ridge as head of the Department of Homeland Security. Kerik would be the second person to head the two-year-old agency. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

North Carolina is home to some 4,000 Vietnamese Montagnard refugees. For most of the recent arrivals, this Christmas will be their first chance to celebrate openly. Hear reporter Jessica Jones of member station WUNC.

New York Times writer Jason DeParle's book American Dream explores the effects of the 1996 welfare reform enacted by President Clinton and Congress. DeParle and Angela Jobe, a woman featured in the book, join NPR's Scott Simon.

The doping scandal that erupted this week due to the revelations of Victor Conte of the BALCO company may have a serious effect on at least two major athletes, track star Marion Jones and baseball slugger Barry Bonds. Jones denies using any illegal substances, and Bonds says he never knowingly used banned drugs, but skepticism is growing. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.

Author Susan Sontag died Tuesday in Manhattan, after a long struggle with cancer. Sontag was the author of many essays and 17 widely translated books. She wrote about photography and AIDS, film and choreography, Vietnam and the Sept. 11 attacks. Her novel In America won the National Book Award for fiction. Sontag was 71. Hear NPR's Kim Masters.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to reopen the market to Canadian cattle in March. But as NPR's Greg Allen reports, in Canada's cattle country, mad cow disease has sown distrust in an industry where borders once didn't matter.

In a series of commentaries for All Things Considered over the past 18 months, Holly Rossi described what life was like for the wife of an Army reservist deployed in Kuwait.

A suicide driver detonates a car bomb outside Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party headquarters in Baghdad. At least 10 people were wounded. The al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq claimed reponsibility for the attack just a day after its leader declared an all out war on the upcoming election. This is the second attack on Allawi's party in a week.

Comic and journalist Stephen Colbert is the fake senior correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We talk with Colbert about his reports, from "Rathergate" to "This Week in God."