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The books of Jill Connor Browne -- better known as the Sweet Potato Queen -- are shooting up the best-seller lists. She recently packed a Washington, D.C. bookstore with converts of her sassy, irreverent humor. Her latest book, The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner, is already a hit. Listen to her entire hour-long monolouge from the Politics and Prose bookstore.

Whirlpool Corporation says it is eliminating more than 4,000 jobs following the recent purchase of its rival, Maytag Corporation. Many of the cuts will come from the closing of plants in Newton, Iowa. Robert talks with Pete Slings, who has worked at Maytag for 20 years and owns a town sports bar.

Thousands of students and alumni from Gallaudet University insist a new appointee for president can't represent them because she grew up speaking instead of using sign language. The appointee, Jane Fernandes, who is deaf, met with students Sunday and asked them not to prejudge her.

Choreographer Paul Taylor is one of the giants of modern dance. Even as his Paul Taylor Dance Company is marking its 50th season with a tour to all 50 states, Taylor is at home, planning his next move. Hear NPR's Jennifer Ludden.

The City Council in Charlotte, N.C., is getting ready to vote on a deal that could bring pro basketball back to town. The Hornets left for New Orleans this summer after a deal for a new stadium fell through. Commentator Andrea Cooper says that her city is trying to improve its image through sports -- just like a lot of other smaller cities. She's been in favor of growth through pro sports for many years, but now she's beginning to wonder.

Accused sniper John Lee Malvo, 17, is ordered held without bail after a hearing Friday in Fairfax County, Va. A preliminary hearing was held earlier in the day in Prince William County, Va., for 41-year-old John Allen Muhammad, the other suspect in a string of killings in the Washington, D.C. area and the Deep South. NPR's Andrea Seabrook talks with NPR's John Ydtsie.

A lawsuit filed in Portland, Ore., alleges that the federal government illegally wiretapped lawyers for an Islamist charity based in that state. As Colin Fogarty of Oregon Public Broadcasting reports, it isn't the first legal challenge to the warrantless surveillance program but it's the first to claim specific documented evidence.

Bushra Jamil is one of the founders of the Radio al-Mahaba, Baghdad's radio station for women. Jamil is in the United States hoping to get financial and popular support for her station. She speaks with Renee Montagne. The station provides a forum for women to ask pointed and personal questions about their legal rights, domestic violence, health and family matters.

Gino Yevdjevich is the lead singer of the Bosnian-Bulgarian punk rock band Kultur Shock. He was a rock musician in Sarajevo when the Bosnian War broke out. During the war, he played a major role in rewriting the musical Hair into a new version called Hair: Sarajevo, AD 1992 which played in Sarajevo for three years to standing room only crowds. Yevdjevich now lives in Seattle; he moved there in 1996 when a theatre produced his play Sarajevo: Behind Gods Back. His band Kultur Shock has a new CD called F.U.C.C. the INS (Kool Arrow Records).

College football's national championship will be decided Wednesday when Texas faces defending champion Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Six games on Monday offered a wild series of warmups, while in a final preliminary on Tuesday night, Penn State and Florida State meet in the Orange Bowl.