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When New York increased its cigarette tax, smoking rates declined. California's proposed increase of $2 a pack may, too, say researchers. The higher the tax, the more likely people are to quit.

LA Mayor Karen Bass says her city is recovering faster than after any other wildfire in modern California history. But experts caution against cleaning up too fast given the risks of toxic debris.

Three siblings spend a summer day at the beach building sandcastles and watching them get demolished in a wordless picture book written by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Qin Leng.

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show if William Johnson is fired when the new owners take over, he'll walk away with a golden parachute worth $56 million. When you tack on stock payouts and deferred compensation benefits, he could get more than $200 million.

Host Bob Edwards begins a series on leadership by interviewing Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey offers some suggestions to President-Elect George W. Bush and talks generally about what good leadership requires. (4:56) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is published by Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 06716

Vanessa Hua's debut novel follows two women at a secret California maternity center where rich Chinese send expectant mothers to give birth to U.S. citizens. Then they run away.

Amid deep budget cuts and layoffs, the nation's second-largest school district is spending $4.5 million to hire 1,000 new aides this year. The superintendent says he'd rather use the money to hire back teachers, but the shootings in Newtown, Conn., led to a change in priorities.

An Alabama parole board has denied early release to a 78-year-old Ku Klux Klansman, who was convicted of killing four black girls in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

The late 1960s were the golden age of Soul music. In studios located in Muscle Shoals, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn., legends like Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge and Otis Redding were recording songs that proved timeless. And many of them were made with Dan Penn.

Haxie Meyers-Belkin, a journalist with France 24, speaks with NPR's Scott Simon. She was on the scene at a restaurant shortly after shots were fired in Paris.