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An analytical look at the week's news events. Topics include the readiness of Iraqi security forces; a new Supreme Court session with a new chief justice; Tom DeLay's indictment and reporter Judith Miller's grand jury testimony.

Economist and Slate contributor Austan Goolsbee shares his thoughts with Alex Chadwick about whether high gas prices in the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricanes will change American driving habits. His conclusion? Americans will only change their driving habits if they are forced to pay $5 or more per gallon, for at least five years.

Dreamworks' latest film Madagascar opens this weekend. The digitally animated comedy is about a bunch of pampered New York City zoo animals that wind up in the wilds of Madagascar.

Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers' 30-year career as a corporate lawyer and some-time public servant in Texas earned her a reputation not unlike her state's motto: "Don't Mess with Harriet Miers."

Mayor Ray Nagin announces that New Orleans must lay off up to 3,000 of its city employees -- or about half the work force. The cuts would amount to a savings of $8 million. He said the city will be unable to pay those workers after Oct. 14, because of the financial impact of Hurricane Katrina.

Frenchman Yves Chauvin and Americans Robert Grubbs and Richard Schrock win the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Their research shows how to custom-make molecules for cheaper, cleaner chemicals and drugs to combat major diseases.

NPR's Adrian Florido talks with Benjamin Torres Gotay, a reporter and columnist for Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Dia, about recent arrests of elected officials related to corruption.

Hurricane Katrina highlighted America's poverty and class division crisis. Some say raising the minimum wage is a logical first step toward change. Two experts examine a potential minimum wage increase: William Spriggs, senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, and Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist and author of Nickel and Dimed and the new book Bait and Switch.

Historian Edward Larson has written extensively on the intersection of science, politics and religion. In 2004, Larson's Evolution: The Remarkable History of A Scientific Theory traced the contentious path the theory of evolution has followed.

A 12,400-mile journey by a great white shark puts a snag in the theory that the animals stick close to established feeding grounds. The trip is bolstering claims that the sharks need worldwide protection.