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Director Ridley Scott has received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for his film Black Hawk Down. The film, based on the best-selling book written by Mark Bowden, is an account of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, in which 19 U.S. solders and some 1,000 Somalis were killed. Scott also received a nomination for best director last year, for his film Gladiator, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. Scott's other films include Hannibal, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner and Alien.

A staff report from the Sept. 11 commission says the Pentagon's air-defense command wasted precious time and missed a chance to intercept at least one of the hijacked planes used in the 2001 attacks. The report largely blames inadequate emergency procedures that didn't account for a response to suicide hijackings. Hear NPR's Mary Louise Kelly and NPR's Steve Inskeep.

A new book details several women's efforts to fight sexual harassment and gender discrimination on Wall Street. Tales from the Boom-Boom Room: Wall Street vs. Women tells the story of a whistleblower who tried to hold Wall Street accountable for its treatment of women. NPR's Madeleine Brand talks with author Susan Antilla.

Dellinger, a long-time peace activist, editor and author, died on Tuesday at the age of 88. Dellinger was jailed for civil disobedience a generation before Daniel and Philip Berrigan. He was part of the "Chicago Seven," the group of seven anti-war demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The convention erupted into violence between demonstrators and police. Dellinger was the author of several books, including an account of his spiritual journey From Yale to Jail. (Rebroadcast from April 9, 1993.)

Among his other mandates, Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr is investigating the firings of the White House Travel Office staff, which occurred early in the Clinton Administration. Starr received that assignment through an unusual chain of events: the General Accounting Office has referred Clinton aide David Watkins to the Jusitce Department for a criminal investigation becuase Watkins allegedly had lied to GAO investigators. The GAO made that referral after encouragement from republican Congressman William Clinger of Pennsylvania, who chairs the committee investigating the Travel Office affair. NPR's Jon Greenberg reports.

Political commentator David Frum. From January 2001 to February 2002 he was a special assistant to President Bush for economic speech-writing. He held the position during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and he's the man who put the axis in the oft-repeated Bush term "axis of evil." Frum is the author of the new book, The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush, an inside account of the White House.

Republicans banned Elmo, Big Bird as well as Burt and Ernie from attending because Big Bird's Twitter account shared that he got a COVID-19 vaccine. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called it "propaganda."

Personal accounts and reflections of individuals affected by the Iraq war. Mandy Terc is a master's student in Middle Eastern studies at Harvard. The 25-year-old Chicago native is in Beirut taking Arabic classes and working on an oral history project about Palestinian refugees. This week, Terc attended a candlelight vigil in downtown Beirut. She was with a few of her American friends, each holding a sign with a message protesting the war in Iraq. Her sign read "Americans Say Regime Change Starts At Home."

Margaret Sartor offers an account of growing up in 1970s Louisiana in Miss American Pie, a memoir of adolescence told through diary entries written during Sartor's girlhood.

Angelyn worked as an accountant and figured out it'd be cheaper to be on cruise ships rather than have a mortgage. They've been at sea for a year and say the new lifestyle costs less than $100 a day.