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The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment ticked down last month from 9.1 percent to 9 percent. Overall, job growth was modest, a continuation of a trend that's been with us all year. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's business correspondent Yuki Noguchi.

President Obama comes back to Washington Saturday from the G-20 summit in France. NPR's Scott Horsley examines what the president achieved at the meeting, considering an agenda heavily overshadowed by the European debt crisis.

This week was to have been Herman Cain's triumphant arrival in Washington, D.C., as a front-running GOP presidential candidate. Instead, he spent all five days dogged by sexual harassment allegations, capped on Friday by a statement from one of the victims through her lawyer. NPR's Tamara Keith recaps.

This past week, All Things Considered has been sharing stories about the Darkhorse Battalion — that's the Marine unit that suffered the highest casualty rate of any Marine unit during the 10-year Afghan war. NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman wraps up the series today, as he tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan about some of the people he met — both on the battlefield and on the home front.

Critics have long questioned the quality of private prisons and the promises of economic benefits where they are built. But proponents say private prisons not only save taxpayers money, but they also generate income for the surrounding community.

Environmentalists are planning to encircle the White House Sunday to protest the Obama administration's expected support of a new pipeline through the Midwest to carry one of the dirtiest forms of oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. NPR's Richard Harris explains that the pipeline pits jobs against the environment.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's critics call him a dictator. His supporters say he's a revolutionary populist. As NPR's Jason Beaubien reports, Ortega is defying both a constitutional two-term limit on presidents and a ban on serving consecutive terms to run for an unprecedented third term. The election is Sunday.

The system eliminates the need for primary and runoff elections, but some say it is too complicated. In the mayoral race in San Francisco — where 16 candidates are on the ballot — voters will soon find out if the system works.

Police departments are starting to equip officers with video cameras on their uniforms. It's supposed to protect both cops and the public, and clarify he-said-she-said situations. But the technology is raising a number of questions and concerns about privacy and who has access to the videos.

This week's Political Junkie column: President Obama says Joe Biden is doing a great job as vice president. Biden says he will run again in 2012. Hillary Clinton says rumors of her replacing Biden on the ticket are nonsense. And they are. So why doesn't this story go away?