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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.

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.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews The Exorcism of Emily Rose. The movie is loosely based on a true story from the 1970s about a priest on trial for the death of a young woman from an exorcism he performed. It stars Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson.

Patients who don't want to go to the doctor -- or are unable to go -- have an alternate resource for medical tests. Commercial testing companies provide exams for cholesterol, HIV or DNA without a prescription.

The Kite Runner, the debut novel by Afghani-born physician and author Khaled Hosseini, has been on best-seller and book club lists for nearly a year. Writer Isabel Allende says the book — about a young man who returns to Afghanistan after a long absence — is "one of those unforgettable stories that stays with you for years."

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.

The Department of Energy launches a campaign to promote energy conservation as the home-heating season approaches. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman says energy-saving steps can help consumers trim high heating costs this winter. Critics say the administration's emphasis on conservation is long overdue.

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.

John Johnson, who died Monday at 87, overcame racial barriers to make a fortune on the magazines Ebony and Jet. He was the first black American to make Forbes' list of the world's wealthiest people.

The anti-Vietnam War documentary Winter Soldier is having its first major theatrical release -- 34 years after it was made. It focuses on a three-day gathering in 1971 when Vietnam veterans, including former Marine pilot Rusty Sachs, told of the atrocities they had participated in or witnessed during the war.