Or, to re-phrase the headline in a more boring way: What, if anything, should replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

It's a hugely important question. The bailout of the two companies has cost taxpayers well over $100 billion.

And the mortgage market is still being propped up by the federal government. For roughly 90 percent of the new mortgages being issued in this country, taxpayers are on the hook if borrowers don't pay.

Kenyan officials have increased security around President Barack Obama's step-grandmother's house in Kogelo, after the Somali affiliate of al-Qaida issued a personal threat.

ABC News reports Kenyan police had already stepped up security around Sarah Obama's house after Osama bil Laden's killing, but after Al Shabaab issued its threat, police presence in the village has ballooned:

The occasional Monkey See I Will If You Will Book Club has reconvened to read Neil Gaiman'sThe Sandman: Dream Country. This week, we read "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the third of the four stories in the book. (And no, it's not a rendering of the Shakespeare play, exactly. Just read it. You'll see.)

Setting out on foot across the Maasai Steppe in 1913 at the head of a column of fifty porters, Hans Reck, a twentyseven-year-old German geologist, had no clear idea how to find his destination. Behind him rose the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Ahead lay volcanic highlands lining the Great Rift Valley. Reck's mission was to investigate a ravine to the west of an extinct volcano named Ngorongoro that had aroused keen interest in Berlin. But he had been given only vague instructions about its location.

President Obama has announced he will ask Congress to extend the tenure of his FBI director for two more years.

Robert Mueller's 10-year term is set to expire in September.

President Obama will ask Congress to allow FBI Director Robert Mueller to remain in his job an extra two years, a rare exemption that would give the U.S. government continuity in a time of change atop the national security team, the White House announced Thursday.

The news comes as a surprise for an administration that had been seriously vetting candidates to replace Mueller, whose term is set to expire on Sept. 4 under a law that caps the service of FBI directors at 10 years.

The debate over whether the Bush Administration's use of enhanced interrogation techniques on admitted or suspected terrorist detainees led to the U.S. military's killing of Osama bin Laden's has largely fallen along partisan lines.

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Bomba Estereo bassist and bandleader Simon Mejia told us the first time he heard Liliana Saumet sing, he felt an instinctive pull toward a voice that had something special. Such is the vision of a musician driven to produce the music he hears in his head.

We got a glimpse of the DNA behind that vision when Mejia sat down with us in NPR's studios to spin some of his favorite tunes as a guest DJ.

[Note: If graphic descriptions of fatal wounds bother you, this post might be disturbing.]

The first member of Congress to be shown post-mortem photos of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden tells Politico that "it was hard to tell if the bullet went through his ear and out the eye socket or vice versa. ... There was head matter, appearing to be brains, coming out of the socket."

Even if you loved To Kill a Mockingbird, you may be full-up with all the stories that have poured out this year to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the book's publication. But if you have room for one more, consider Hey, Boo. It's a documentary that will be released in New York May 13, and other cities soon after. Director/writer Mary McDonagh Murphy wanted a chance to have author Nell Harper Lee explained by people who know her well and love her.