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Aug. 21 would have been the 100th birthday of the influential bandleader Count Basie. He's credited with taking the Kansas City style of jazz to a national and international audience. He helped launch the careers of Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Harry Edison, Helen Humes, and Jimmy Rushing, among others. Tom Vitale reports.

The U.N.-organized Iraqi National Conference adds a day, reflecting uncertainty over violence in the Shiite city of Najaf. Delegates gathered in Baghdad to appoint an assembly to organize national elections have so far been distracted by the situation in Najaf. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

Major League Baseball announces that the Montreal Expos will move to Washington, D.C., in time for the 2005 season. The city, chosen over finalists including Las Vegas and Northern Virginia, has not had a baseball team since the Senators left in 1971. A publicly financed stadium is to be built along the Anacostia River south of the Capitol. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Gen. Mark Hertling spent a year leading operations in the Iraqi city of Najaf. In the first of an occasional series on national service, NPR's Steve Inkseep speaks with Hertling and his wife Sue, who spent that year alone at a U.S. military base in Germany.

Iraqi insurgents have upped their attacks in the northern city of Mosul, where bodies of dozens of Iraqi security forces have been found. U.S. troops are trying to counter the insurgents' attempts to prevent the creation of Iraq's new security forces. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.

September winds down as one of the deadliest for U.S. troops in Iraq. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers says the status quo in Fallujah and other insurgent-controlled cities is "unacceptable". He says a political solution is required, but military force will likely be necessary.

American and allied Iraqi government forces push into the center of Fallujah in the second day of an offensive meant to expel insurgents from the city. The military expects several days of tough urban fighting. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels.

For 20 years, something called the "broken windows" theory has guided some social policy and many city police departments. The theory holds that disorder in urban neighborhoods leads people to be disorderly. New research shows that people's perceptions of disorder don't always match the actual disorder in their neighborhoods.

Kurdish militiamen are playing an increasing role in efforts to secure Mosul. When the city police force collapsed in the face of an insurgent offensive last November, U.S. commanders turned to seasoned Kurdish militiamen for help in restoring security.

A year ago this week, Ted Rose abandoned his New York City urban life and headed for the American West. He lives year-round at the Shambhala Mountain Center in the Colorado Rockies. In part three of a week-long series, he talks about how he sometimes needs a retreat from his retreat.