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November is over and so is the big fall TV season. But there are bright gifts among the off-season also-rans, including TNT's Mob City and a French series about the undead.

While the latest Coen brothers movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, isn't a biopic, it is inspired by the life of a real person: the late Dave Van Ronk. He was a folk and blues singer and a central figure in the folk revival of the early 1960s. NPR's Joel Rose has the story of the musician, who was known for his avuncular presence on the Greenwich Village scene.

Tom Wagner was on his way from Louisiana to California when his plane landed for a layover in Houston. The airline said it's not sure how the crew missed him during their sweep of the plane after the flight. They gave him a voucher.

The rapper, singer, poet and songwriter performs three tracks from this year's Parts of Speech with the aid of a full band. With backing vocals from Aby Wolf, Dessa overcame a bad cold to nail this forceful, whip-smart set.

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.

The track record of products designed for digital privacy has been abysmal — at least until recently. Snapchat, wildly popular among teens, is changing assumptions about young people's desire for digital privacy. But it's not clear whether the trend will stick.

Andre Le Notre helped turn an old hunting lodge into the Versailles we know today, taking his profession way beyond a trade. Experts say Le Notre's work was so groundbreaking, it continues to influence contemporary urban architecture. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Le Notre's birth.

Wreaths are made from greens collected by "tippers," who snip about 14 or 15 inches off the limbs of fir trees. But Christmas wreaths are valuable enough to attract tree poachers, who cut limbs and even whole trees on private land. That means the wreath on your front door could contain stolen goods.

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.