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Texas Icehouses — part town hall, part tavern, icehouses have been a South Texas tradition since the 1920s. Once a vital part of everyday local culture, a cornerstone of every neighborhood in San Antonio and Houston, they are a rapidly diminishing, endangered species. A journey into this Mexican, German, Tejano, Anglo tradition.

After nearly a week of chaos and privation in New Orleans, the federal response to Hurricane Katrina appears to be making a dent in the city's anguish. Most of the known storm survivors are out of the flooded city. Rescue operations continue.

Hurricane Rita is losing power as it makes its way through eastern Texas. The Texas towns of Galveston, Lumberton and Port Arthur and Lake Charles, La., absorbed the brunt of the storm so far. Rita reached land early Saturday as a Category 3 hurricane.

The Pentagon is defending its use of a toxic agent called white phosphorus to smoke out and capture insurgents in last year's battle for Fallujah. If ignited particles of the chemical land on a human, they can burn through flesh and bone. John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org discusses the controversy.

Peasants relocated to make room for a reservoir in northern China's Hebei province claim local leaders pocketed more than $7 million in compensation funds owed to them. Those who tried to organize a recall vote were bribed, beaten or jailed into submission. The case typifies recent rural protests.

Another White House official was named over the weekend as a source for the leak of a CIA agent's identity. Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper said he spoke with Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, about the case.

Steve Inskeep talks with Mayor Brad Bailey of Groves, Texas, one week after the region was preparing for Hurricane Rita. Bailey says that the town has had a lot of cleanup work to do, but luckily escaped major flooding or chemical pollution.

The musicians, theater groups and artists of Belarus have been driven underground recent years under the increasingly authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko. Among the groups that have managed to thrive is the Belarus Free Theater, which is gaining recognition abroad. Its director was a key organizer of the popular protests of last month's president election, which many in the international community say was rigged.

As people get more of their entertainment from the Internet, the amount of data flowing in and out of the house is going to grow. Telecommunications companies and communities are looking for ways to make "broadband" even broader -- and more affordable.

House Republicans basked in triumph after razor-thin passage of a sweeping budget cut plan in the wee hours of Friday morning. But intra-party tensions are sure to flare again when negotiations begin next month on a House-Senate compromise measure.