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The government says that the poverty rate for 2011 was 15 percent, essentially unchanged from the year before. That still means that more than 46 million people lived below the poverty line last year. According to one economist, "the bad news isn't as bad as it has been."

Brian Beals was convicted in the 1988 murder of a 6-year-old. At the time, Beals, a 22-year-old student at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, was home in Chicago during Thanksgiving break.

Consumers have grown accustomed to the idea of online retailers collecting information about them, but author Joseph Turow says that now physical stores are doing it too.

The new rules come after years of criticism that the Department of Justice has held companies but not executives accountable.

The rule requires brokers to act in the best interest of their clients when it comes to retirement accounts.

Noah talks to Jayetta Hecker, associate director for the National Security and International Affairs Division of the General Accounting Office. They talk about the GAO report released today that describes near-perfect counterfeit $100 bills which have been in circulation in the Middle East. The first of these "Superdolars" were found in the early 1990s. They are much better fakes than most counterfeit money because they are printed on rag cotton paper using a printing method similar to the one used by the U.S. Treasury.

This week, Polish-born Jan Karski, one of the first people to report an eyewitness account of the Nazi Holocaust to the West, died in Washington D.C. Host Jacki Lyden speaks with Karski biographer Tom Wood. Wood is the author of Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust. Jan Karski was a liason officer for the Polish underground during World War II and a retired history professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He was 86.

SEC chief Harvey Pitt resists calls to resign. Democrats question Pitt's handling of ex-FBI and CIA Director William Webster, whose nomination to head an accounting oversight board is under a cloud. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

2: REYNOLDS PRICE... writer, teacher, poet ... has turned his attention to the life of Jesus and the gospels. His latest book, "Three Gospels" (Scribner) is a translation of the gospels of Mark and John from the original Greek and includes a new gospel, "An Honest Account of a Memorable Life". In 1984 PRICE was diagnosed with spinal cancer, and became paralyzed from the waist down. His other books include, "The Promise of Rest", "A Whole New Life" and "The Collected Stories".

They were designed to let drivers avoid accidents...but a new study shows that fatality rates are actually higher for autos equipped with anti-lock brakes. For instance, the study, conducted by a insurance industry group, found that passengers were more likely to die in single-car crashes in cars with anti-lock brakes. As NPR's Don Gonyea reports, the experts say they're not yet sure what accounts for the loss in safety benefits.