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As an impasse continues at the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, the leading Shiite cleric in Iraq -- Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani -- prepares to lead a mass march on the city Thursday. He's seeking an end to fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militia loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

A drive is under way in many Southern communities to preserve their first African-American public schools, which they helped raise money to build. The Rosenwald schools were built with financial help from philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, one of the early presidents of Sears and Roebuck. Jessica Jones of member station WUNC reports.

With the fire season expected to be another rough one in California, firefighters in the state have armed themselves with a new tool: a Cobra attack helicopter recycled from the U.S. Army. It's the first time an attack helicopter has ever been used to fight fires. Rob Schmitz of member station KPCC reports.

The Supreme Court rules that people do not have a constitutional right to refuse to tell police their names. The justices rejected, by a 5-4 vote, the argument that forcing people to give their names violates protections against unreasonable searches and self-incrimination. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said giving one's name is "insignificant in the scheme of things." NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.

In a campaign appearance in Virginia on Friday, Sen. John Kerry, President Bush's Democratic challenger in the November elections, criticizes the Bush administration for using the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as one of the main justifications for the invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. NPR's David Welna reports.

Democrats cry foul over a probe of former Clinton national security advisor Sandy Berger for removing classified documents from the National Archives. Critics say the probe's disclosure was timed to deflect attention from the upcoming release of the Sept. 11 commission's report, expected to be highly critical of the Bush administration. Hear NPR's Pam Fessler.

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Barbara Demick of The Los Angeles Times, reporting from the South Korean capital of Seoul, about that nation's reaction to the taking of a South Korean hostage in Iraq by Islamic insurgents. The hostage has been threatened with death unless South Korea reconsiders plans to send thousands of troops to bolster the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq.

Doug Ford, the provincial premier, was talking with reporters when he swallowed the bee. He promised to go straight to the hospital, and predicted that the incident would be funny later.

The New York Times reports that Williams-Sonoma, the maker of cooking pots and appliances, now wants to get you out of the kitchen and into the backyard. The Agrarian Collection includes everything you need to grow your own food.

Timothy Egan is the author of the book The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. Now out in paperback, the book was awarded the National Book Award for nonfiction. Egan is a national enterprise reporter for the New York Times, and was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for a series on race in America.