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Chicago passes a city ordinance that would require big retailers like Wal-Mart and Target to pay workers at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits within the next few years.Opponents are calling the measure illegal and planning to sue. Even Chicago's mayor is opposed. But for Chicago's poorest neighborhoods, the main question is whether the ordinance will bring better jobs or chase new ones away.

Contracts awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for post-Hurricane Katrina work along the Gulf Coast were initially awarded to big firms. But some local, smaller firms are questioning the deals. Unsuccessful bidders say the government didn't follow its own rules.

A divided U.S. Supreme Court rules on cases involving campaign-finance reform and the death penalty. Justices rejected a Vermont law that limited how much money a candidate can raise or spend. They upheld a Kansas law mandating a death sentence if evidence for and against the punishment appear equal. Madeleine Brand speaks with Slate legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick about the latest rulings.

If you've spent any time around cats, you've seen them curl up in cozy spaces. A new study on feline cognition shows that they also like to sit in snug squares created by a kind of optical illusion.

Young playwrights highlight the damage done by gun violence after winning a competition called #enough. Their performances are scheduled to occur on the date of the 1999 Columbine school shooting.

As President Emmanuel Macron and challenger Marine Le Pen campaign for the April 24 run-off election, analysts say the vote results will have deep consequences in France and on the world stage.

The highly anticipated sixth installment of J.K. Rowling's novel about a child wizard was released Saturday. NPR's Neva Grant followed two youngsters who spent the weekend immersed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has been testing the limits of how much his state can do to curb unauthorized migration. But Abbott's sweeping crackdown hasn't always gone as planned.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that people who use marijuana for medical reasons can be prosecuted by the federal government, even when a state sanctions medicinal use of the drug. Ten states allow people to take marijuana under a doctor's prescription.

Steve Inskeep visits a convention of law-enforcement groups and reports on the growing business of high-tech gadgets.