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The greased tracks forced the train to slow, and then the robbers used a tow truck with a hook to scoop corn out of the freight cars. It's believed they got away with 55 tons of corn which, given the current prices, should be worth thousands of dollars.

As the last U.S. combat troops prepare to leave Iraq, the question of whether neighboring Iran will try to fill any vacuum looms large.

A Brookville, Pa., man missed work because he said his mother had died. Her obit was in the local paper. Relatives began calling the paper saying Scott Bennett's mother was very much alive.

Steve Inskeep has the Last Word in business.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And let's hear one more number. In a CBS/New York Times poll released on Friday, more than half the respondents, 54 percent, said that President Obama does not deserve to be re-elected.

The president appeared on CBS last night, telling "60 Minutes" why he thought he would win the job again, despite that number. And we're going to talk about that and more with NPR's Cokie Roberts, who joins us most Mondays.

Cokie, good morning.

COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Let's report, next, on a surprise agreement on climate change. United Nations climate talks in South Africa were not expected to produce much, but negotiators for many nations did make a deal, one that could lead to a major new climate treaty at the end of the decade. NPR's Richard Harris is in Durban, South Africa covering the story. Hi, Richard.

RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: So what is the agreement?

Occupy protesters in cities along the West Coast are attempting to paralyze some of the nation's busiest ports Monday. Organizers say they expect thousands of demonstrators to turn out for what they're calling "Wall Street on the Water Front." Occupy protesters in Oakland successfully shut down the port there last month, and they're looking to do it again.

Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky will be in court this week, for a pre-trial hearing in his child sex abuse case. NPR's Tom Goldman has a preview of the hearing.

This Christmas, the Beyblade is sure to be a popular stocking stuffer. What's a Beyblade — it is a sophisticated top. Hasbro has taken the simple concept and added all kinds of cool features.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

On the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court Bush v. Gore decision, Steve Inskeep reports that collectors have bought up those punch-card voting machines that caused the hanging chad confusion of the 2000 election. Jim Dobyns bought 4,500 machines in Palm Beach County and has sold nearly all of them.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And as the president does that, the race for the Republican presidential nomination continues. Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are the leaders in the race for that nomination. They faced each other in a debate in Des Moines, Iowa Saturday night.

The last American troops are coming home from Iraq this month, and President Obama is marking the occasion with a series of events to commemorate the conclusion of the war.

On Wednesday at Fort Bragg, N.C., he and the first lady will thank troops for their service.

This event is a decade in the making, with far-reaching implications including domestic political consequences.

It's not unusual for awful traffic conditions or incompetent driving to make some people really angry behind the wheel. But when enraged drivers actually lash out at others on the road, that's road rage — and experts say it can be a sign of deeper emotional problems.

The term road rage was coined in Los Angeles – a city long known for its epic freeway jams. Mike Shen got a taste of how bad it can get shortly after moving to L,A., when a woman viciously tailgated him on the freeway.

Although debtors' prisons are illegal across the country, it's becoming increasingly common for people to serve jail time as a result of their debt.

Collection agencies are resorting to some unusually harsh tactics to force people to pay their unpaid debt, some of whom aren't aware that lawsuits have been filed against them by creditors.

Take, for example, what happened to Robin Sanders in Illinois.

Many European parents, and some American ones, too, have long figured if they let their kids drink alcohol at home, they'd be less likely to go hog wild with their friends. But recent studies of teen drinking behavior don't bear that out.

That's unwelcome news in places like France, where these scientific developments are running head long into a culture that loves its wine.

Pakistan is a country where rumors are always flowing. So when President Asif Ali Zardari was rushed to a hospital in the United Arab Emirates on Dec. 6, it set off all sorts of speculation.

His aides are doing their best to quell talk that he might step down. They say Zardari has been undergoing treatment and tests for a pre-existing heart ailment, and is recovering well in Dubai.

But that hasn't stopped politicians from considering what Pakistan's political landscape might look like without him.

Millions of Americans wake up each morning without a job, even though they desperately want to work. It's one of the depressing legacies of the financial crisis and Great Recession.

NPR and the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll of people who had been unemployed or with an insufficient level of work for more than a year. The results document the financial, emotional and physical effects of long-term unemployment and underemployment.

The country has been trying to recover from the Great Recession for three years. But the U.S. job market remains weak, leaving roughly five million workers unemployed for a year or more.

The Kaiser Family Foundation teamed with NPR to conduct a survey, seeking to describe the experiences of those long-term unemployed workers. Here are some highlights of the survey findings.

The long-term unemployed tended to be low-wage workers.

One late January night in 1966, President Johnson went to the Capitol to deliver the annual State of the Union address.

Johnson was at the peak of his power that night, and during the hourlong speech, he talked about his agenda for the year: Vietnam, social programs and expanding the war on poverty. But right in the middle, he offered up an idea that seemed to come out of nowhere when he proposed to change the term for a congressman from two years to four, concurrent with presidential terms.

Robert Griffin III is the first Baylor player to ever win the Heisman. In a year full of scandals in college sports, the win for Griffin — a dean's list student and son of two retired Army sergeants — delivers a much-needed shot in the arm to the public image of the NCAA, says Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation.

Jerry Robinson, creator of Batman's iconic enemy the Joker, died this week at 89. Guy Raz has this appreciation.

The vast, untapped natural gas reserves in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale are the subject of much debate. Scientists who are trying to shed light on the safety of drilling are facing a host of obstacles, including lack of funding and data. Susan Phillips Scientists who are trying to shed light on the safety of drilling are facing a host of obstacles.

Judging by the attacks on Newt Gingrich at Saturday's GOP debate in Des Moines, Iowa, the former House speaker is the man to beat in the Republican presidential field.

The past few weeks have seen a remarkable turnaround for Gingrich's campaign. It wasn't long ago when his bid was all but left for dead. This summer, nearly his entire campaign staff resigned on a single day. One of those staffers was Gingrich's longtime communications aide Rick Tyler.

Tyler explains that he left because he lost perspective, but is now open to rejoining Gingrich's campaign.

All 17 nations that use the Euro have agreed to integrate their fiscal policies and give the European Union more control over their national budgets. Germany was the prime mover behind this push for greater fiscal discipline. Some are saying the agreement, in effect, unites Europe under German control. Host Audie Cornish speaks with NPR's Sylvia Poggioli in Rome.

America's biggest trade partner, Canada, sailed through the economic downturn almost unscathed, with low unemployment, no mortgage crisis and not a single major bank failure. As part of WBEZ's Front and Center series, Brian Mann reports on how Canada emerged as one of the world's most stable and prosperous economies.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are two of the best soccer teams in the world. They're also bitter rivals, and when they met Saturday in the showcase El Clasico match-up, fans around the world turned out to watch the game. Reporter Jesse Hardman joined soccer enthusiasts at New York's Spanish Benevolent Society.