By Leo Juarez, NBC News Producer

FARGO, N.D. – Its wait-and-see here now along the Red River. And what a luxury.

I was here last year as record-level flooding caught this city off guard and prompted a frantic, last-minute scramble to fill sandbags and hold the water back. Thousands were evacuated and hundreds of homes suffered an estimated $100 million in damages.  

Now, the Red is on the rise once again – 16 feet above flood stage as of Friday and counting. But the dikes are ready and the organized chaos of last year has been absent.

VIDEO: Midwesterners brace for Red River's crest

It helps that National Weather Service has projected that the river should crest Sunday at 37.5 feet, safely below last year's record setting level of 40.8 feet.  

But the lessons of 2009 are a big part of why Fargo (and neighboring Moorhead, Minn.) is far better prepared this time around.  

I saw that firsthand earlier this week when I visited "Sandbag Central," a warehouse where volunteers finished filling a million sandbags – an effort that began weeks ago and was completed days before the river is expected to crest. That and improvements to the city's flood protection system in the past year have given city officials and residents optimism. Downtown, where many shops shuttered their doors last year, it's business as usual. 

SLIDESHOW: Fighting floods in Fargo

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And while 30-pound sandbags are still the primary mode of defense, the city is also putting new technology to use. One example is the Aqua Fence, a system of portable walls that can be set up faster and with less manpower than traditional sandbags.

The strategy has certainly evolved, but the essential weapon in the fight against the floodwaters remains the hard work and generosity of volunteers – homeowners, students, relief workers, even inmates – who have pitched in to help. Until a more permanent flood solution is in place – possibly a diversion plan to steer the river to the west of the city – volunteers will likely be the muscle fighting the river's rise. 

By Charles Hadlock, NBC News Correspondent

DALLAS – Pay attention, class.

What's going on in Austin, Texas this week is an epic battle over books that will affect what students learn in classrooms across the country and, perhaps, influence the minds of children across the country.

The Texas Board of Education is hammering out the social studies, history and economics curriculum that will go into the newest textbooks. The results will impact students from kindergarten to 12th grade for the next ten years.

VIDEO: Texas mulls removing Einstein, Armstrong from textbooks

Why should you care what goes into a textbook in Texas? Unlike most states, which allow local school districts to decide on textbooks, Texas buys the same books for the entire state, making it the largest customer for textbook publishers. So, what gets printed here often ends up in classrooms in other states.

It's a battle between liberals and conservatives. The Texas board is made up of 10 Republicans and five Democrats, who are under constant pressure from outside groups who want to influence the content of textbooks. Christian groups want more references to the religious underpinnings of our laws and government. Secularists want to banish any references to Christmas.

There have been clashes this year over how much prominence to give civil rights leader Cesar Chavez and whether too much emphasis is given to historic figures' race and ethnicity.

In the weeks of discussions, the board considered tossing out such names in history as Neil Armstrong, Christopher Columbus, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.

Armstrong and Columbus are back in the textbooks. The fate of Edison and Einstein is up in the air.

Winston Churchill once wrote, "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

In Texas, politicians seem to be re-writing it.

A final vote on the new curriculum is expected in May.