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Wiener spent 14 years fighting to gain access to the FBIs secret files on John Lennon. Wieners Freedom of Information case went all the way to the Supreme Court before the FBI decided to settle. His book Gimme Some Truth outlines and reproduces the most important pages of the file, revealing that the Nixon administration plotted to deport Lennon in 1972 and silence him as a voice of the anti-war movement. Wiener is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, and also author of Come Together: John Lennon and His Time.

Robert talks with Robert Dallek, Professor of History at Boston University and author of Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents about why Richard Nixon didn't challenge John F. Kennedy in 1960 over ballots in Illinois. One theory is that a challenge in Illinois would have invited Democratic challenges in other states. Another theory is that because of the missile gap with the Soviet Union, a challenge would have been bad for the country. (4:15)Hail To the Chief is published by Hyperion Press, 1996.

NPR's Pam Fessler reports numerous non-profit organizations will receive a package of grants worth $42 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. In honor of the foundation's 25th anniversary, NPR received the single largest grant ever in public radio history. The Chicago arts community is the biggest beneficiary with remaining funds going to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, nine musuems, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Joffrey Ballet.

On Sunday, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen was intercepted and sacked by Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker, who is also named Josh Allen — making some NFL history in the process.

NPR's Margot Adler reports on the opening of The American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island. The records of immigrants who came through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 are now available online. Ellis Island officials and the Mormons -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- have worked together to create a searchable database containing about 70 percent of all arrivals to the Port of New York during that period. (4:30) www.ellisislandrecords.org.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, millions of students in driver's education classes watched films that offered a grisly brand of highway safety education -- they used actual footage of bodies twisted by car crashes to instill the fear of reckless road behavior. A new documentary called Hell's Highway tracks the history of these shock-value films. NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with director Bret Wood.

Personal accounts and reflections of individuals affected by the Iraq war. Mandy Terc is a master's student in Middle Eastern studies at Harvard. The 25-year-old Chicago native is in Beirut taking Arabic classes and working on an oral history project about Palestinian refugees. This week, Terc attended a candlelight vigil in downtown Beirut. She was with a few of her American friends, each holding a sign with a message protesting the war in Iraq. Her sign read "Americans Say Regime Change Starts At Home."

This year, there are only three entries in the Academy Awards' best song category. It's only the second time in Oscar history that just three songs were nominated. Murray Horwitz, director of the American Film Institute's Silver Theater, talks about this year's nominees.

An Israeli woman and a Palestinian man find lifelong friendship in a search for understanding. In The Lemon Tree, Sandy Tolan ties a story of two families and the house that connected them, to the history of the Mideast conflict.

Ed Gordon talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch about his new book At Canaan's Edge — the final installment in a trilogy of histories about the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.