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Before Hurricane Katrina hit, local, state and federal officials held conference calls to coordinate their responses. In tapes of the meetings obtained by NPR, officials show growing frustrations.

Political supporters of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay are holding a testimonial dinner to show support for him, as the House Ethics Committee prepares to investigate his overseas travels with a controversial lobbyist. Meanwhile, House Republican leaders are working to ensure staffers understands current ethics rules.

Michele Norris talks with Imam Hassan Qazwini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of America, about the new mosque in Dearborne, Mich. The mosque, which opens Thursday evening, is the largest in the United States.

More than a decade ago, the Glenview Naval Air Station, near Chicago, was closed after nearly 60 years. But the town found a way to thrive -- and it serves as a model for communities that face base closures today.

For years, journalist Ted Gup wasn't sure what he believed, and he felt uncomfortable in the company of people who freely shared their firm beliefs. Now he accepts his own uncertainty as a good thing.

Congress approves a $51.8 billion emergency spending bill for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. But some Democrats are not happy about the legislation, and they have further questions about the effectiveness of a congressional investigation into the failures of the relief effort.

Days before Hurricane Katrina hit, state, local and federal agencies knew the storm could devastate the city. They spent the weekend in almost non-stop conference calls. But even before the storm hit, some of the plans started to fall apart. And the wait began for chain of command to be established.

Merck Chairman and CEO Raymond Gilmartin will step down ahead of his planned retirement next year. He says the decision for an early departure from the pharmaceutical company is his own. Merck faces thousands of lawsuits from people who suffered heart attacks or strokes while taking the painkiller Vioxx.

A failure of the FBI's computerized system to match fingerprints allowed a wanted sex offender to walk free in Georgia. Authorities say after he was released, Jeremy Brian Jones went on to kill four women. Melissa Block talks with Kenneth Moses of the company Forensic Identification Services about the technology that the FBI uses to match fingerprints.

Reporter Joe Nick Patoski relates the story of a group of people who holed up in a Mississippi bar to ride out Hurricane Katrina, and then had to make a harrowing escape through the roof and across two makeshift gangplanks to safety at the height of the storm.