Washington D.C.

New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt doesn't have a badge or a gun or the ability to compel people to talk to him. Nevertheless, he has found sources to help him break major stories concerning special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into connections between President Trump, his associates and Russia.

New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore explains how Trump's election was a boon to those with access to the president. "If you had a Trump connection, you could write your own ticket," he says.

The seventh season of 24 premieres this Sunday. Critic David Bianculli assesses the four-hour, two-night return of counterterrorist Jack Bauer — who's got some new allies, and some new enemies.

The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family, and Fate was written by Marjorie Williams. Williams died last year of cancer.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin.

Washington Post reporter Leon Dash won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his eight part series "Rosa Lee's Story." He has turned that into the new book ,"Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America." It shows Lee's day to day life in one of Washington D.C.'s poorest neighborhoods.

O'Brien spent twenty years as a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times. In 1988, she worked as Michael Dukakis' press secretary when he ran for president. She now writes novels; her latest is called "The Ladies Lunch," about a group of Washington women who meet weekly for lunch, until one of their group, the White House press secretary, dies a violent and mysterious death.

Producer Naomi Person talks with writer Edward Jones. He's just published a new collection of short stories, "Lost in the City," about the "lives and souls" of black people living in Washington, D.C. This is his first book.

For 40 years, Tames was the White house photographer for the New York Times. He's collected some of his best-known pictures in a new book called "Eye on Washington."

Critic Maureen Corrigan, who lives in Washington, DC, talks about one of the unforeseen consequences of the current budget stalemate -- the closure of popular tourist spots in her home city.

Writer Marita Golden. Her new novel, "Long Distance Life," examines half a century in the life of a black middle-class family in the other Washington, D.C., the one not filled with shiny buildings and corridors of power. Previously, Golden published a widely acclaimed memoir, "Migrations of the Heart."

Veteran TV journalist David Brinkley. His book, Washington Goes to War, was a surprise best-seller last year and has just been released in paperback. The book, based on Brinkley's personal experiences and reflections, told the story of Washington in the early 40s, and how both the government and town itself were transformed by the responsibilities thrust on them as a result of the war.

As a reporter, Ward Just covered the Vietnam War and, later, Washington politics. Now, he devotes himself to fiction writing. While his novels often draw on his knowledge of D.C. culture, Just is careful to invent his own characters, rather than use fictionalized versions of real politicians.

Television news commentator David Brinkley. For 14 years, starting in 1956, he and Chet Huntley co-anchored "The Huntley-Brinkley Report." He now anchors the Sunday morning ABC news program "This Week with David Brinkley." Brinkley has written an account of how Washington was transformed by America's entry into World War II. The book is titled Washington Goes to War: The Extraordinary Story of the Transformation of a City and a Nation. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Hedrick Smith, the Washington correspondent for The New York Times. His new book looks at power and how it works in our nation's capital. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Mark Alan Stamaty's new anthology of his nationally-distributed cartoon, which follows the misadventures of the fictional congressman Bob Forehead, satirizes the world of policymakers, lobbyists and the White House.