National

First, there was the post-Thanksgiving sales spectacle Black Friday and then the online version, Cyber Monday. Now, charitable groups want to start a new holiday tradition — it's called Giving Tuesday and the first one is tomorrow.

It may seem a little surprising that no one came up with the idea before of designating a specific day to help launch the holiday charitable giving season.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week takes up the question of who qualifies as a supervisor when the issue is harassment in the workplace. The court's answer to that question could significantly restrict employer liability in racial and sexual harassment cases, or, in the view of some business organizations, it could result in frivolous litigation.

The facts of the particular case before the court Monday are, to say the least, in dispute.

This is the time of year when people all over the country are coming together and getting food to needy families, but for one community in Manchester, N.H., private acts of charity aren't just a holiday tradition — they are a display of anarchist and libertarian principles.

On a recent day, about 50 people gathered in a converted office space with $6,000 worth of food and a list of needy families. Mike Ruff, with help from a couple of kids, filled shopping bags with food for the hungry.

More than $174 million in donations has been raised for those affected in New York and New Jersey by Superstorm Sandy, which devastated parts of the Atlantic coast in late October.

"The more affluent and well-insured people will figure a way to recover their lives, but there are a lot of people in New York who really won't have that capacity and can't speak out for themselves," says Stacy Palmer, the editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

After Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, Norman Kansfield's daughter asked him to perform her wedding ceremony.

Kansfield, a respected pastor, scholar and lifelong member of the Reformed Church in America, agreed to marry Ann and her long-time girlfriend. He informed the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, where he served as president, of his plans.

"I had thought that there would be a request for my resignation," Kansfield says. "Nobody did that."

It was a June wedding.

War always leaves death, destruction and sorrow in its wake, and the Iraq War piled all of it on Dr. Najeeb Hanoudi. Yet his bond with the Americans he aided remains unbroken.

NPR's Jacki Lyden has followed the story of the Oxford-trained Christian ophthalmologist for years.

It begins in 2003, when Hanoudi first met a band of American soldiers patrolling Mansour, his upscale Baghdad neighborhood.

Host Rachel Martin speaks to W.R. Wilkerson III about the infamous 1947 Hollywood Blacklist. Wilkerson is the son of Billy Wilkerson, who was publisher of The Hollywood Reporter from 1930 to 1962 and supported the blacklist through the trade paper. Wilkerson III has written a formal apology for his father's role in the controversy 65 years later.

Congress returns to work this week after taking most of the autumn off to campaign. Host Rachel Martin speaks with NPR's Washington editor, Ron Elving, about the long congressional to-do list during the so-called "lame-duck" session.

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IS A BALL GAME")

SISTER WYNONA CARR: (Singing) Life is a ball game being played each day...

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's Sunday morning, so that means NPR's Mike Pesca is with us for our weekly chat about sports - and frankly, whatever else strikes our fancy. He's up in New York. Hey, Mike.

MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Hey. Maybe woodworking.

MARTIN: Who knows?

PESCA: Scrapbooking.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

For more on the changing dynamic in that region, we're joined live in the studio by P.J. Crowley. He served as assistant secretary of state for public affairs in the Obama administration between 2009 and 2011. He also served on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. P.J., thanks for coming in this morning.

P.J. CROWLEY: Pleasure, Rachel.