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George Herrera wasn't carrying gifts when he headed down the chimney but guilt for staying out past his curfew. Predictably, he got stuck for 90 minutes until an emergency crew arrived.

Tyler Carroll organized a kneel-down at his Long Island high school last week, and about 40 students participated. The superintendent called it a safety hazard because the Tebowing blocked the hallways. Carroll serves his suspension on Monday.

The response of many Chinese is coming through in emoticons — the symbols often used in text messages. The Wall Street Journal reports Kim's death is the most popular topic on China's equivalent of Twitter. Some messages show laughing emoticons while others show broken hearts.

Millions of Americans, who have benefited from a holiday in paying Social Security payroll taxes, cannot count on that being extended beyond the first of the year. House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday that the bipartisan deal worked out by the Senate to keep the tax cut going for another couple of months would not pass muster with House Republicans.

In 1989, Vaclav Havel led the Prague Spring, the popular revolution that brought an end to Soviet domination in Eastern Europe. Havel went on to be Czech president for 14 years, a role that, as an artist, he says he never felt completely comfortable in. He was 75.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

It's not clear how the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will affect nuclear talks. Just ahead, we'll explore the concerns about the power transition in the secretive communist state.

House Republicans are rejecting a bipartisan compromise approved overwhelmingly by the Senate Saturday. The deal would have extended the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits through February.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with a big investment in micro-blogging.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MONTAGNE: The Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal is investing $300 million in Twitter. The man Time magazine calls the Arabian Warren Buffett says he looks to invest in, quote, "promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact," like Twitter.

New websites make it easier for people to share not just thoughts, but things like music, photos, favorite recipes and magazine clips. Linda Wertheimer talks to Sree Sreenivasan, digital media professor and dean of student affairs at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, about notable social media tools that cropped up in 2011.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Of course, people share more than just information. Some cities offer car sharers or bike sharing services. And today's last word in business is: tie share, as in neckties.

A year ago, former IBM consultant Zac Gittens and his friends realized they could expand their professional wardrobes by pooling their resources.