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In November, voters will decide whether new state laws on issues such as labor policy, immigration and gay marriage can remain in effect. They're using a process called "popular referendum." Different from a ballot initiative, it amounts to a public veto of elected officials. And its use is growing.

Finally, a summer event movie that feels like summer! Critic Ian Buckwalter says Guillermo del Toro gets the balance of high stakes and sly humor just right in Pacific Rim,his big-budget homage to the kaijustories that brought us Godzilla and his ilk.

Egypt is about to get a new ruler. A caretaker head of state is being ushered into power Thursday following Wednesday's dramatic military coup. President Mohammed Morsi was forced from power just a year after winning the country's first free election. He lost the public's trust amid a failing economy and fears that he was imposing an Islamist agenda.

Baseball's All-Star game is being played in New York Tuesday night. The winner gets home field advantage during the World Series.

Some of Egypt's liberal politicians are worried that they've allied with the enemy against the ousted president. After the January 2011 revolution, the military ruled during the transitional period for 18 months, when hundreds were killed in protests. Now the military is squarely back in power with the backing of millions of people. Some say there is a danger that Egypt's deep state will take hold again and turn the nation back into a police state. But they are still squarely in the minority.

The federal government once considered whistle-blowers a nuisance, or worse. But over the past few years, that attitude has slowly started to change. More agencies have been reaching out for tips about fraud and abuse, even if digging through the stacks of complaints can present a challenge.

A pretrial hearing in the Sept. 11 case was suspended briefly last week to investigate allegations of eavesdropping. The commissions' chief prosecutor launched an investigation, and said no one was "listening, monitoring, recording" the proceedings. Defense attorneys seemed to take his word, which given the history of the commissions, is a baby step toward progress.

Chris Morgan Jones' The Jackal's Share finesses the fundamentals of the spy novel with admirable economy. The clever premise has our detective investigating his own client in order to certify his sterling character. Naturally, complications arise.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high Tuesday, but only if you look at the Dow in non-inflation-adjusted terms. Adam Davidson of the Planet Money team tells Melissa Block that the Dow is of almost no value as a measure of U.S. economic activity.

The Thirty-Nine Steps,John Buchan's 1915 spy thriller, has been reborn as an "interactive novel." Part book, part game, the digital adaptation is innovative and gorgeous, but comes with a set of frustrations .

A new CD and DVD box set, No Pryor Restraint: Life in Concert, showcases the searing, profane and moving performances of comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor's widow, Jennifer, says his genius lay in his honesty about his well-publicized troubles.

For the first time in modern history, Shiites are crossing borders to fight against the "evil ones," meaning Sunnis. As Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah has openly admitted, his men are leading battles in Syria, and Iraqi fighters stream in join them, Shiites back at home envision the coming of the hidden imam. They say all the signs in Syria point to the Mahdi's imminent appearance.

Weekend Edition Sunday Host Rachel Martin talks to The Sporkful's Dan Pashman about fruity cocktails for the summer.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner was supposed to be a game changing new aircraft, but battery problems grounded the fleet, costing Boeing an estimated $600 million. Now the Federal Aviation Administration has approved a fix to the battery issue, and the first Dreamliner will return to the skies this weekend in Africa. Ethiopian Airlines is relaunching the "continent's first" Dreamliner in its effort to distinguish itself in the increasingly competitive, increasingly crowded African aerospace market.

Stereotyping in films and TV is as old as Hollywood itself. For some, portraying a stereotypical character — the ditzy blonde or angry black man — is a foot in the door to the acting world. For others, it is a path that can be limiting and repetitive.

If anyone could pull off a multiplex-friendly adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby —a film treatment that might be capable of stepping out of the long shadow cast by the book — it's Moulin Rouge showman Baz Luhrmann, right?

What's left to know about tennis's superstar sisters? Probably not much they'd be willing to share, given how eager the press has been to wedge them into ready-made narratives about race, celebrity or the daughters of a Svengali.

Blues, jazz and gospel; a civil rights movement that began with the Emmett Till case; modern glass and steel buildings that dared the sky. In Third Coast, Thomas Dyja writes that "the most profound aspects of American Modernity grew up out of the flat, prairie land next to Lake Michigan."

Lifetime's general manager says the channel is trying to reflect "the true breadth" of America. It recently launched a reality show called BAPs — which stands for "Black American Prince or Princess."

Diplomats are trying to arrange a new ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. But Ukraine's president is under domestic pressure to take decisive military action against pro-Russian separatists.