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Saturday's Jefferson-Jackson dinner marks the beginning of the home stretch leading up to the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. With actual voting less than 60 days away, six of the major Democratic candidates were on hand, hoping to rally their supporters for the last eight weeks of the campaign.

Beloit, Wis., resident Joan Salzberg, discovered a green-breasted mango hummingbird feeding in her backyard. The bird is rarely, if ever, seen north of Mexico. It had clearly lost its way. Thanks to a concerted rescue effort — just in time for winter — the little hummer now calls a Chicago zoo home.

Earlier this week, NPR's Christopher Joyce reported on an experimental fire scientists set in Brazil to understand how these fires affect climate change. Here, he offers a reporter's notebook on what it's like to chase a fire through a tropical forest.

Next week, the African National Congress will choose its next leader. An intense rift between the candidates — South African President Thabo Mbeki and his one-time deputy Jacob Zuma — is causing many to question the party's future.

The National Endowment for the Arts has released a study on reading trends in the U.S. The study shows "startling declines" in "how much and how well" Americans are reading.

What new information could lead 16 intelligence agencies to change their conclusions on Iran? New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti talks with Melissa Block about how the NIE came together — and what the new estimate says about changes in the intelligence community.

Officials in New York are on track to spend $1 billion taxpayer dollars refurbishing 40-year-old Winter Olympic sports and tourism sites near Lake Placid. Critics doubt it will pay off.

A tape of a September shootout in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA leaves Iraqis unable to distinguish between U.S. military personnel and private security contractors. The Blackwater shootout left 17 Iraqis dead.

Nearly 20,000 people convicted of drug offenses could find out Tuesday if they'll be spending less time in prison. The U.S. Sentencing Commission may reduce the extra punishment that's given for crimes involving crack, as compared to powdered, cocaine. The Supreme Court ruled that federal judges may give lighter sentences to crack cocaine defendants than has been required.

Last September, 17 Iraqis died in a controversial shooting involving the security firm Blackwater USA. Several Iraqis involved in the incident have sued in U.S. courts. They recall that day in videotaped testimonies, and their accounts differ from Blackwater's.