NPR News

Bloomberg ran quite a story, yesterday. It stems from a Freedom of Information Act Request that yielded the details of previously secret borrowing from the federal government to the biggest banks.

The bottom line, reports Bloomberg, by March of 2009, the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion "to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year." The lending began in August of 2007.

Judy Blume has been channeling the anxieties, dreams and secret thoughts of young readers for more than four decades. With her honest treatment of topics from bullying to puberty, she has won legions of fans around the world. But she's also drawn the ire of critics, who want her frank books banned.

School libraries around the country have banned many of Blume's books over the years, including Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Then Again, Maybe I Won't and Blubber, making Blume a champion for supporters of intellectual freedom for young people.

With markdowns and midnight sales every Black Friday come reports of shopping-related violence. One woman allegedly pepper-sprayed other customers over an Xbox. In years past, people have been trampled to death. Adam Cohen says it's time for stores and the government to do more to protect people.

This week, John Hinckley Jr. faces a hearing to determine whether or not he can be released from a mental health facility to care for his ailing mother. The case raises questions about the role of the insanity defense and what happens to the criminally insane after they leave the courtroom.

There is concern among some that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood could rise to power and push Egypt away from secularism. In an op-ed for The Boston Globe, Emile Nakhleh, former director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program at the CIA, argues those fears are misplaced.

Federal authorities announced Monday that they have seized the domain names of 150 websites accused of selling counterfeit or pirated merchandise.

Agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI coordinated the effort for "Cyber Monday," the day that for many shoppers kicks off the online holiday shopping season.

Undercover agents had been buying phony merchandise from the websites for three months. Then they contacted big companies to make sure the items were phony before taking over the domain names.

The acclaimed, eccentric, and very polarizing British film director Ken Russell has died, after a series of strokes at the age of 84.

The director of Tommy, Women In Love and Altered States, Russell was known for a florid style and fascination with sadomasochism that earned him condemnations and a cult following. His adaptations of classic literature and over-the-top biopics ranged from perverse to merely provocative — and an indelible nickname: "Kinky Ken Russell."

At point today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.9 percent to 11,554. The rally comes after news that European leaders had made progress on a solution to the sovereign debt crisis and record sales this past Friday.

It also comes after a 4.8 percent downturn last week, the worst Thanksgiving week since the markets started observing the holiday in 1942.