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A California judge recently struck down a state law requiring high school students to pass an "exit exam" before graduating. A group sued the state to suspend the exam requirement after thousands of students failed. The fight about this issue mirrors a larger nationwide debate over how to make a high school diploma more meaningful.

With the arrivals of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court shifted to the right, as expected, in its just-completed term. But the shift was less dramatic because Justice Anthony Kennedy assumed a swing role.

President Bush this week is expected to sign a $70 billion tax-cut package into law. It will lower rates for investors and save billions of dollars for families with above-average incomes. Now Republicans in Congress are turning their attention toward the estate tax. They want it repealed permanently.

Juan slipped across the U.S.-Mexico border in the middle of the night nine years ago. Now he's a student in New York. As part of the personal history project Crossing the Boulevard, he explains the challenges he has faced as an illegal immigrant.

Cretin is a word derived from an 18th century Swiss-French word meaning "Christian." The connection is basically pious, asserting that a mentally innocent person so-labeled is possessed of a Christian soul by way of baptism and is worthy of our mercy and pity.

Nigerian author Wole Soyinka talks about his new memoir with Renee Montagne. It is an intimate look into Nigeria's political turmoil in the last half century.

Nashville-based musician Moe Denham has spent a career getting the best from a Hammond B3 organ. After decades as a sideman and opening act, he's out with a new CD: The Soul Jazz Sessions.

The Bush administration announces that all detainees in U.S. military custody around the world, including those at Guantanamo Bay, are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions. It is unclear what the apparent change in policy will mean for people held by the U.S.

After Angela Merkel became Germany's chancellor, she invited President Bush to visit the former East Germany. Merkel grew up in the region, which was once an independent communist nation. The two will have dinner in the small farming town of Trinwillershagen.

This week, MySpace became the most visited website in the United States, overtaking Yahoo and Google. Michele Norris talks with Spencer Reiss, contributing editor at Wired magazine. Reiss, who recently profiled the site and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for the magazine, will talk with us about the rise of MySpace and whether it can sustain such rapid growth.