All Things Considered

On Monday, federal prosecutors announced indictments against 18 current and former deputies of the L.A. Sheriff's department for corruption and civil rights abuses inside the nation's largest municipal jail system.

The track record of commercial products designed with privacy as a top priority has been abysmal — at least until recently. The ephemeral texting app Snapchat is turning assumptions upside down about young people and their desire for digital privacy.

Fred Cate, director of applied cybersecurity research at Indiana University, is an expert on privacy in the digital age. But when it comes to the viability of tech products that promise privacy, Cate has always been skeptical.

France's Chateau of Versailles has pulled out all the stops for one of its favorite sons, gardener Andre Le Notre, who designed the palace's famous gardens. This year, to mark the 400th anniversary of Le Notre's birth, several of the garden's fountains are being restored and the chateau is hosting an exhibit on his life through February 2014.

Experts say Le Notre's work was so groundbreaking, it continues to influence contemporary urban architecture.

'The Interlocutor Of Kings'

The Senate is back from vacation and trying to get a budget deal completed. The House plans to leave town for the year at the end of the week, which means the heat is on to settle on spending levels for 2014 and 2015. Democrats would also like to insert money for extended unemployment benefits, which expire at the end of December. If nothing else, negotiators want to agree on a "topline" spending amount to avoid another government shutdown when the current stopgap spending measure expires Jan. 15.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel returned to the Mideast on Monday after a weekend tour of Afghanistan and a stop in Pakistan. The trip focused on a planned security deal with Afghanistan and concerns among Gulf allies about a nuclear deal with Iran.

North Carolina is expected to host one of the nation's toughest U.S. Senate races next year. First-term Democrat Kay Hagan is seeking re-election, but recent polls show that even though her GOP opponent won't be known until the spring, her support for President Obama and the Affordable Care Act have already hurt her standing with state voters. She's also being targeted by outside groups, who are spending millions of dollars in hopes of unseating her.

Frigid weather and freezing rain have beset large swaths of the country. Those below-average temperatures are expected to stay well into the week.

Not long ago, Nick Lowe was approached by his American record label about releasing a Christmas album. The esteemed UK songwriter, who gave the world "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" and "Cruel to Be Kind," says the idea seemed laughable.

"But I was confused by how snooty I felt when they asked me about doing it," Lowe says. "I think it's a Brit thing, really: Making Christmas records is seen as a not very cool thing to do. And I thinkg it's all bound up with strange ideas from the 1960s, about selling out and things like that."