As the new school year begins, many districts face tighter budgets and difficult choices about what programs to cut, which teachers to keep, and what school supplies to provide. Steve Ellis, principal of Fike High School in Wilson, N.C. and, Walt Gardner and Sean Cavanagh of Education Week discuss the challenges and how they affect students and families.

Rebels in Libya continue to prepare for a final push on Bani Walid, one of the last strongholds of ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi. As rebel forces continue to topple key cities, questions arise about what happens next. NPR foreign correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, New York Times foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid and Fouad Ajami, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, discuss the rapidly evolving situation in Libya and the country's next steps.

"I'm in it for the money." "It's a holiday. I'm still here." Summing up your work can be difficult — especially in six words. Smith Magazine has published a string of successful books in recent years with six-word memoirs. Contributors offer their life stories, brushes with fame, tales of love or pregnancy — and now their work story — in exactly six words. Magazine co-founder Larry Smith joins us as listeners share their six-word memoirs of work — from lessons learned to terrible bosses.

Sept. 5 is Labor Day in name only, E.J. Dionne argues in The Washington Post.

"We may still celebrate Labor Day, but our culture has given up on honoring workers as the real creators of wealth and their honest toil — the phrase itself seems antique — as worthy of genuine respect," he writes.

As people across the country suffer from long-term unemployment, the tech industry is experiencing a shortage of qualified workers. Particularly in software development, employers are waging bidding wars over a tightening supply.

Take the case of Mike Champion. He and his wife, Sandra, live in the Boston suburbs with their 9-month-old daughter, Molly.

Dozens of wildfires continued to burn out of control across tinder-dry Texas on Monday as calls went out for off-duty firefighters around the region to report for duty.

The Texas Forest Service reported 56 separate fires on Sunday that had burned some 30,000 acres. Neighborhoods across eastern and central parts of the state were reporting widespread damage.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak returned to court Monday as the first witnesses took the stand in his trial on charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of more than 850 protesters during the uprising that ousted him.

Mubarak, who is in ill health, was once again wheeled in on a stretcher and placed in a metal defendants' cage inside a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo where the courtroom has been set up.

Major U.S. companies are asking for tax breaks in order, they say, to create more jobs. But the question remains whether they will create American jobs or move their money overseas. Steve Inskeep talks to Washington Post reporter Jialynn Yang about her recent article on the subject, and how difficult it is to find data on overseas vs. domestic hiring.

In Cairo, the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is scheduled to resume Monday. On the first day that testimony is expected, the judge has banned cameras from the courtroom. Mubarak is accused of ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising earlier this year. The 83-year-old denies the charges.

Unions are under siege, as Republican governors have curtailed collective bargaining rights in some states. As well, national labor leaders say President Barack Obama and Democrats in Washington have let them down.