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Every year, the week of the Oscars, Brad Oltmanns and Rick Rosas, partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and about 12 counters go to an undisclosed location in Southern California and hand count all 6,000 ballots. It takes the team about three days to determine the Academy Award winners.

Gay and lesbian couples in Florida are waiting to hear whether Jan. 6 will be the day they can get start getting married. It's a battle gay marriage advocates thought they'd already won, but continues to be mired in legal wrangling.

NPR's Wendy Schmeltzer reports on macular degeneration, a vision disorder that now afflicts roughly 1.7 million older Americans. Researchers who study vision loss believe that macular degeneration could impair the vision of over 6 million Americans within the next 30 years as the baby boom generation ages. Macular degeneration currently has no cure, but various social service organiations that work with the elderly are trying to help macular degeneration patients by teaching them ways to cope with their disability while remaining independent.

He's been at the forefront of contemporary jazz for over 40 years. He played with a number of bop groups in New York during the 1940s with quintets led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Later, a quintet led by him and Clifford Brown, came to epitomize the sound known as hard bop. During the Civil Rights movement, Roach was composing some of jazz' strongest political statements.(REBROADCAST from 6

A report says Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) will step down as Senate Republican leader following a furor over remarks that seemed to endorse America's segregated past. Lott faced a Jan. 6 vote on his status as incoming majority leader and a challenge for the post from Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN). NPR News reports.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) says he will step down as Senate Republican leader following a furor over remarks that seemed to endorse America's segregated past. Lott faced a Jan. 6 vote on his status as incoming majority leader and a challenge for the post from Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN). Hear from NPR's Alex Chadwick and NPR's David Welna.

The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 in Game 2 of the World Series, taking a 2-0 overall lead. Boston pitcher Curt Schilling helped lead his team to victory, despite a painful ankle injury that left him limping and threatened to end his season. Hear NPR's Tom Goldman.

While the Walt Disney Concert Hall has been open since October 2003, the dramatic organ was not ready until this fall. A design collaboration between Gehry and organ builder Manuel Rosales, the 6,134-pipe organ is a dramatic centerpiece to the venue. NPR's Fred Child visits the hall.

Tropical Storm Frances makes its second landfall in Florida, churning into the state's panhandle with an expected 10 inches of rain and 65 miles-an-hour wind. Over the weekend, the storm plowed into Florida's Atlantic coast as a category two hurricane. More than 6 million people lost electricity as powerful winds and rain knocked down trees and damaged homes and boats. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports.

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Tess Vigeland of Marketplace about a ruling by a federal judge that a gender-discrimination lawsuit against the giant Wal-Mart retail chain could move forward as a class action suit. The decision makes this the largest civil-rights action case ever brought against a private employer in the United States, and could involve more than 1.6 million current and former employees.