Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently held one of his traveling Cabinet meetings in the disputed city of Kirkuk in an effort to show Iraqi Arabs on the edge of the Kurdish-controlled north that he's working on their behalf, too.

But the fact that he felt obliged to bring in large numbers of heavily armed troops for the event illustrated the tension plaguing Iraqi politics.

A decade ago, investors thought Greece would flourish on the euro. Money poured in, and banks started lending it out. Thefilos Papacostakis, a bank teller at Alpha Bank in Thessaloniki, got to hand out a lot of that money.

Last month, Thefilos says, his bosses called him in for a meeting. They told him things were about to get worse. When countries are in this kind of trouble, the bosses said, people panic and pull their money out of banks.

When Robert Holmes' parents moved to Edison, N.J., in 1956, they were one of the first African-American families to integrate the neighborhood.

"After we'd moved to Edison, there was a resentment that we had broken into the community," Holmes says.

Even at the age of 13, Holmes felt the animosity. The neighborhood had a private swim club that opened up to anyone who participated in the Memorial Day parade. Holmes was in the band.

"I arrived at the pool on Memorial Day having marched in the parade with my uniform still on, and they called the police," he says.

You can relive this spring's Classical Countdown, with this audio montage!

Click to hear the streaming audio above, or download the file (48 mb) here.

The winners' playlist, in order:

Here's what you've heard on Northwest Public Radio's Classical Countdown so far....

#50 - Arvo Part - Spiegel Im Spiegel

#49 - Nino Rota - Music from the Films of Federico Fellini

#48 - Ariel Ramirez - Missa Criolla (Creole Mass)

A jury found former Democratic Sen. John Edwards not guilty on one count of campaign finance fraud and was deadlocked on five other counts. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., filed an amicus brief in the Edwards corruption case, asking that it be thrown out. Melanie Sloan, executive director of the group, offers her insight.

Seattle city leaders are praising a hero who prevented more victims in Wednesday’s shooting.

Asst. Police Chief Jim Pugel described what he saw from a video that captured the shooting at Café Racer. He says the hero was sitting next to the suspect when he started firing at people.

Pugel: "The hero picked up a stool and threw it at the suspect, hit him. Picked up another stool, and hit him, this time, suspect is pointing at him.  During that time two or possibly three people made their escape and the suspect was between them and the door."

The embattled head of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is downplaying an unusually public display of tension at the state agency he runs. Steve Pharo says the spat isn't affecting the OLCC's ability to do its job.

Governor John Kitzhaber has been pressuring Steve Pharo for months to step down as head of the agency that regulates alcohol sales in Oregon. Pharo has refused, saying he works at the pleasure of not the governor, but the five member board that oversees the OLCC.