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A classical scholar with a voracious appetite for high and low culture alike, he's dauntingly smart — but far too interested in why we love what we love to be a snob. Jacki Lyden talks to Mendelsohn about his new essay collection.

Democrats in the Senate decided Tuesday that Joe Lieberman may keep his committee chairmanship — even though he campaigned for Republican John McCain. Democrats secretly voted 42-13 to let him remain chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. His only sanction was being removed from the Environment Committee.

Congressional Democrats and three Republicans have struck a deal that hands President Obama an early political victory. They agreed on a compromise bill for the gigantic economic stimulus package that the president requested. Their measure will be put to a vote as early as Thursday in the House and Senate, and it's expected to pass in both chambers.

President Obama says the economy is still stressed out, but there are "glimmers of hope." After meeting with economic advisers, the president says those include low mortgage rates leading to refinancing, increases in small business loans and stimulus tax cuts making their way into paychecks.

A new intelligence report warns that without drastic new measures, the international community faces the real prospect of a nuclear or biological attack by 2013. The panel that issued the report has briefed vice president-elect Joe Biden on its contents.

O.J. Simpson is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Las Vegas for his conviction on felony charges, including kidnapping, in a robbery committed last year. The former football and movie star — acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman 13 years ago — could get up to life in prison.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce his picks for his energy and environment team at a Chicago news conference. Nobel laureate Steven Chu is expected to be Obama's energy secretary; Lisa Jackson is likely to be named the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hillary Clinton has taken charge at the U.S. State Department. The secretary of State named George Mitchell to be a special envoy to the Middle East and Richard Holbrooke to be a representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Jeff Gluck of The Athletic about NASCAR's decision to ban the Confederate battle flag at all of its events and properties.

Suze Rotolo, who strongly influenced Bob Dylan's songwriting and walked beside him on the album cover for The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, died of lung cancer on Friday. She was 67. Fresh Air remembers Dylan's muse with excerpts from a 2008 interview.