New York City's police department started its Independence Day celebration a few days early. At a firing range in the Bronx, the NYPD detonated more than 5,000 lbs. of confiscated illegal fireworks.

This July Fourth marks the 100th anniversary of a baseball milestone.  In 1911, Cubans Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida became the first Latino players for the Cincinnati Reds. The two are sometimes called the first Latino players in the major leagues, but that depends on the definition of major league baseball.

The Fund for the Arts’ annual campaign has ended and the organization’s energy will now turn inward, toward revising its mission and policies. The shakeup at the fund started earlier this year, when CEO Allan Cowen retired amid a flurry of criticism over his brusque interactions with artists and arts groups. Much of the dissent came from visual artists, who say the fund doesn’t give them the money or attention they deserve compared to performing arts.

The spring meet at Churchill Downs comes to an end today. It’s a spring meet that won’t soon be forgotten. Just under two weeks ago, a tornado ripped through the Churchill Downs backside, causing extensive barn damage but no injuries to people or the hundreds of horses stabled there.

KFC is trying to get a new image — a healthier one. To do that, it's pushing its grilled chicken again — this time focusing on bigger sizes and better flavors. KFC needs to drum up all the business it can get because its U.S. sales have been sliding.

Steve Inskeep has business news.

Steve Inskeep talks to NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, who is in southern Sudan, which becomes the world's newest nation on July ninth. It comes six years after a peace deal that ended a two-decade civil war between Sudan's north and south.

Elections in Thailand produced the country's first female prime minister on Sunday. Yingluck Shinawatra, 44, is a businesswoman with no political experience other than her carefully stage-managed election campaign.

Yingluck's real test will be to make peace with a political establishment and military that deposed her brother former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup five years ago.

In Syria, the city of Hama has been the scene of the largest anti-government protests in the country.

Rallies have often been met with armed retaliation by security police. That didn't happen at Friday's mass rally, and the city's governor was fired. There were reports of tanks advancing on the city.

Hama is a sensitive place. Thirty years ago, the Syrian army crushed an Islamist rebellion there, killing tens of thousands.

Now, a new generation is on the streets, demanding democracy.

A Coming Backlash?

Visually impaired Kentuckians face obvious obstacles.  Adding to the potential problems is access to technology and transportation. Cora McNabb of the state Office for the Blind says they’re likely to re-appear on the next needs assessment.