The grisly discovery of a dead body stuffed in a 35-gallon drum full of asphalt and dumped at a landfill next to North Carolina's Charlotte Motor Speedway kicks off Kathy Reichs' new novel, Flash and Bones.

Reichs, a forensic anthropologist, is the author of the books that inspired the Fox TV series Bones. Her latest sends her heroine, medical examiner Temperance Brennan, on a journey through the underbelly of Charlotte's NASCAR racing scene.

For the first time ever, the New York Public Transit System (busses, trains, subways) shut down Saturday. Local officials are preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Irene.

This week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke slammed political gamesmanship and one Republican on the congressional supercommittee suggested that tax breaks on everyday Americans could be allowed to lapse. Host Laura Sullivan speaks with James Fallows of The Atlantic about these stories and others.

For decades, the city of El Paso, in far West Texas, defied the look of most desert communities, with neighborhoods boasting lush, green lawns and residents freely running their sprinklers.

Then a study came out in 1979 that showed just how close El Paso was to a crisis: At its rate of water use, the city would run dry within 36 years.

"I can't make you ... I'm not going to arrest you."

But please, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) just told 600 senior citizens who live in Atlantic City: Let the state evacuate you before Hurricane Irene slams into the high-rise buildings where you live.

The residents have so far refused to leave.

Christie said the state is going to send buses to the seniors' buildings in the hopes they can be convinced to go to inland shelters.

"Let us walk you downstairs and put you on those buses," he added.

The Libyan rebels' takeover of Tripoli may be a landmark of the movement known as the Arab Spring, but does it qualify as a revolution?

James DeFronzo, author of the book Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements, thinks it's still too early to tell.

"You have to have some great structural, institutional change for an uprising to eventually be legitimately called a revolution," he tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan.

It took a U.S.-led invasion force of more than 200,000 troops nine months to scour Iraq's nearly 170,000 square miles before they captured Saddam Hussein, in one of the largest manhunts ever.

Now, Moammar Gadhafi is on the run in Libya — but chasing after him is a much smaller and less well-equipped force of Libyan rebels. They're trying to track down a fugitive who, like Saddam, is well-armed, well-funded and capable of winning popular support and sowing instability simply by evading his pursuers.

Libyan rebels fought to gain control of a major supply road to Tripoli on Saturday, seizing a border crossing with Tunisia and strengthening their hold on the oil-rich country as they hunt for Moammar Gadhafi.

Controlling the road from the Tunisian border to the capital would help ease growing shortages of fuel and food, particularly in the battle-scarred city.

The first deaths in the U.S. related to Hurricane Irene to be reported come from North Carolina.

The Raleigh News & Observer writes that: