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After nearly two and a half years, NASA is on the verge of launching a space shuttle. If weather permits, Discovery will blast into orbit Wednesday afternoon. The mission will service the international space station, but it is also an important symbolic step after the Columbia disaster of 2003.

Industry demand for the "sustainable seafood" label, issued by the Marine Stewardship Council, is increasing. But some environmentalists fear fisheries are being certified despite evidence showing that the fish population is in trouble — or when there's not enough information to know the impact on the oceans.

Years ago, writer Adam Ross' father told him a disturbing story involving a morbidly obese second cousin and a deadly peanut. Now, Ross has transformed that tale into a dark, debut novel, Mr. Peanut, which dramatizes the case of a man who may or may not have killed his wife via legume.

A blistering report finds the government team concealed documents that would have helped the late Ted Stevens, a longtime Republican senator from Alaska, defend himself against false-statements charges in 2008. Stevens lost his Senate seat as the scandal played out and later died in a plane crash.

No one knows for sure what the political effect will be if the minority loses the right to filibuster judicial nominees. A look at what may happen if the Senate's exercises the "nuclear option."

Before the Civil Rights movement, segregated American cities helped give birth to the Chitlin' Circuit, a touring revue that provided employment for hundreds of black musicians. Rock historian Ed Ward profiles two recent books which illuminate the conditions these musicians endured.

About a hundred Toyota dealers and 40 Toyota plant workers are in Washington, D.C., this week to show support for the automaker. They are meeting with lawmakers to get across their message: that Toyota is a good company that takes care of its customers.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy says his best writing features his New York hometown. His latest book, Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes, is no exception. "There's a richness of Albany that I couldn't possibly exhaust," says Kennedy, who is now 83.

The cellist Yo Yo Ma looks back at the life of master cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who died Friday at 80 at a Moscow hospital. Ma credits Rostopovich for invigorating the cello repertoire, both as a performer and through dozens of new works commissioned from great composers.

Michael Chabon's sprawling novel features a multiracial cast of characters, from gay teens to former blaxploitation stars. It's a celebration and gentle sendup of the countercultural norms and racial politics of life in the Bay Area, revolving around efforts by two men to save their record store.