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The Federal Reserve made a last minute decision Wednesday to raise the proposed cap on bank fees for using a credit or debit card to make retail purchases. George Zornick of The Nation sees this as another way that Wall Street has power in Washington.

It's hard to beat a plain slice of cool melon on a hot day. But old standbys like cantaloupe and honeydew are now joined by more exotic varieties in the markets, and their subtleties are worth exploring — in soups, salads and other creative dishes.

In Israel, the widespread use of the electric car isn't just a pipe dream -- the company Better Place is banking its future that the small Mediterranean country is the perfect place to roll out its fleet of electric vehicles. The big problem up until now has been battery life.

Congressional leaders have until the weekend to find middle ground on spending bills and avoid the blowback of a government shutdown. However, the new House GOP majority includes many freshmen, who could defy their own leaders to force deeper cuts in federal spending.

Libyan rebels have regained control of the eastern gateway city of Ajdabiya after international air strikes on Moammar Gadhafi's forces. Host Scott Simon gets the latest from NPR's Eric Westervelt.

Between love children and sexual assault, wealthy and powerful white society sounds like a talk show lineup. Jack White of The Root discusses the discrepancy in blame for bad behavior between black lower class and white upper class.

Humans find their world domination challenged by disconcertingly lifelike CGI primates, but based on the dimwittedness of this prequel to the Charlton Heston classic, maybe the apes deserve to rule, after all. Rise substitutes effects and noise for any pretense of narrative complexity.

California is increasingly home to midsize solar installations, which avoid many of the complex permitting obstacles that plague larger projects. Sacramento and San Francisco both operate midsize projects. Customers pay more, but they don't have to install panels on their homes.

President Obama's budget proposal includes a roughly $300 million cut from the Community Development Block Grant program. Popular with state and local governments, the program funds everything from affordable housing to job creation programs. Local officials from both parties say such cuts will only hurt cash-strapped cities and counties.

Mexican drug traffickers have gotten creative by using small aircraft to drop marijuana into the U.S. The number of ultralights illegally crossing into the U.S. nearly doubled last year, when agents recorded 228 cases. But the newest method to smuggle drugs across the border is especially dangerous.