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A year ago, torrential rains in eastern Iowa turned what was already serious flooding into a catastrophe. The Cedar River overflowed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, damaging thousands of homes and businesses. A year later, recovery in Cedar Rapids has been slow.

San Francisco braces for big street protests as the Olympic torch makes its way through the city. Demonstrators are angry over China's recent dealings with Tibet. The Bay Area is home for scores of Tibetan exiles.

Thousands of have fled a crowded refugee camp in Lebanon during a lull in the fighting between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants holed up inside the camp. U.N. relief officials in another camp nearby say they expect 10,000 Palestinian refugees to arrive throughout the night. Michele Norris talks with NPR's Deborah Amos.

There is still no sign of a cease-fire in Gaza after more than two weeks of fighting. Sporadic gunbattles between Israel and Hamas continue, and the U.N. says tens of thousands of internally displaced Gaza civilians are struggling to find shelter from the fighting.

The Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee has held a confirmation hearing for Shaun Donovan, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to be Housing secretary. Donovan has earned high marks as New York City's housing chief and is expected to play a key role in the Obama's efforts to stem the rising tide of mortgage foreclosures.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra about his study of bird's nests that are made from anti-bird spikes.

The U.N. Relief And Works Agency has suspended operations in the Gaza Strip after one of its drivers was killed by Israeli fire. John Ging, UNRWA's director of operations in Gaza, says the suspension of aid is "a disaster" for the people of Gaza. He says Israel had approved the movement of the aid convoy.

Tom Nealon's new book searches through patchy historical records to trace subjects like how chocolate helped lead to war in the Caribbean, or the role a grain fungus played in the Crusades.

Bob Kane gets all the credit for creating the superhero. But author Marc Tyler Nobleman argues that a long-forgotten writer, Bill Finger, created almost everything we now associate with the Dark Knight, from his cape and cowl costume to the name Gotham City.

In some of the dirtiest places on Earth, author and environmentalist Andrew Blackwell found something worth looking at. His book, Visit Sunny Chernobyl, tours the deforestation of the Amazon, the oil sand mines in Canada and the world's most polluted city, located in China.