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Friday's Labor Department report on unemployment says more than 100,000 jobs were cut in December, an unexpectedly high number. But the overall unemployment rate holds at 6 percent. NPR's Jack Speer reports.

New trade rules lifting quotas on garment exports are having an impact for many countries. One such country is the tiny African nation of Lesotho, where six factories have closed and some 6,000 workers have lost their jobs.

Oxford American magazine has released its 6th music issue, which includes a 23-track CD. The effort of collecting and compiling that many songs may seem like a strange choice for "the southern magazine of good writing," but editor Marc Smirnoff says it's actually quite natural. American music comes from the South, Smirnoff tells Steve as they highlight some of the tracks.

Hurricane Wilma is moving farther out into the Atlantic Ocean, but the United States isn't quite done with the storm yet. Residents in northeastern states are getting a lot of rain, and in Florida, 6 million people are without power.

Storyteller Mitch Myers recounts the tale of Duke Ellington's performance at the Newport Jazz festival in 1956. It's a story of a journeyman saxophone player, Paul Gonsalves, and how his playing that night would become legend. (6:00) Music is from the CD Ellington at Newport on the Columbia Jazz label. The tune is called Diminuendo/Crescendo in Blue.

Ken Foster's memoir The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind is about to come out in paperback. He also contributed to and edited the collection Dog Culture: Writers on the Character of Canines. (This interview was first broadcast April 6, 2006.)

The Labor Department reported grim economic news on Friday. Employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January — the most since 1974. Cost-cutting employers are in no mood to hire. The unemployment rates stands at 7.6 percent.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is halting foreclosures for 6 months for homeowners with VA Loans, after an NPR investigation that found thousands of them at risk of losing their homes.

Atlantic journalist Bart Gellman says the Republican party is increasingly unwilling to accept defeat and, in fact, is "prepared to win by sacrificing the essential elements of democracy."

The House Democrats' $1.9 billion security plan includes more than $730 million to reimburse the National Guard and other agencies for the Jan. 6 attacks. It's fate is unclear in the Senate.