Updated at 3:19 p.m. ET

Google CEO Sundar Pichai made his public debut before Congress on Tuesday, spending much of his testimony countering Republicans' allegations of anti-conservative bias in the company's search results.

He also faced scrutiny of how much data Google collects on users and on the company's work on a censored search tool for China.

The Google+ social network inadvertently gave app developers access to information on some 52.5 million users — even data that users designated as private — because of a "bug" in its software, Google says. The company had already announced it was pulling the plug on the social network because of an earlier incident, and now says the shutdown will happen four months sooner.

Lawmakers unveiled the much-anticipated farm bill compromise Monday night, ending the months-long impasse over whether a critical piece of legislation that provides subsidies to farmers and helps needy Americans buy groceries could pass before the lame-duck session concludes at the end of the year.

Does mistletoe give you the creeps? Wish that eggnog and fruitcake had never been invented? Would life be better if you never had to wrap another present?

NPR's All Things Considered is doing a story about holiday traditions you absolutely hate and wish would just go away. Have a tradition in particular that you loathe entirely? Tell us about it.

'Tis the season when an escape from holiday madness may be necessary --and these three romance novels will whisk you away to fictional worlds where all the high stakes drama is resolved with true love and happily ever after.