The Labor Department on Friday reported the nation's unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.1 percent in May, evidence that the American economy is slowing, as employers added only 54,000 jobs. The jobless rate was 9 percent in April. For analysis on the latest economic data, Mary Louise Kelly talks to NPR's Yuki Noguchi.

It's not hard to hear why "Basing Street" missed the cut for the original lineup of Labour of Lust. Nick Lowe's 1979 sophomore set — home of "Cruel to Be Kind," Lowe's one and only visit to the Top 40 — is raucous, funny and carnally minded, and "Basing Street," a B-side tacked onto the end of the recent reissue, is the opposite of all those things.

Ed Kilgore is a special correspondent for The New Republic.

Environmental activist and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance Robert Kennedy Jr. was on The Colbert Report on Wednesday to discuss mountaintop removal (or, as Colbert calls it, ‘flatland enhancement’) and his new movie The Last Mountain.  The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is coming to Louisville on Sunday June 12 for the Flyover Film Festival. It focuses on Coal Mountain, in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, and the attempts of citizens to stop mining on the mountain and replace it with a wind farm.

Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian died Friday at age 83. For more on his life, Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR's Don Gonyea.

The presidential palace in Yemen reportedly was hit by shelling Friday as government troops battled with opposition tribesmen in the capital city.

A government official told The Associated Press that President Ali Abdullah Saleh and four top officials — the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the parliament chief and a presidential aide — were wounded when rockets hit the building.

Yemeni television later said the president was fine.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has signed a new law that aims to boost revenue and beautify neighborhoods. When a property is vacant and falls into a state of disrepair, city governments often cut grass and board up windows, then fine the owner for the work. In Louisville, Metro Government has spent millions keeping up empty houses, but only $800,000 has been repaid. That’s because the city couldn’t collect from property owners until banks and other creditors got their share.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is pushing for criminals serving jail time or possession of crack cocaine to have their sentences reduced, but his efforts are unlikely to affect one of the most famous local cases involving crack cocaine. Holder’s recommendation is related to the Fair Sentencing Act. Previously, possession of the more expensive powder form of cocaine carried a lighter penalty than possession of crack. Holder argues that anyone sentenced under the harsher guidelines should have the chance to serve less time.

The World Health Organization still isn’t sure where the rare strain of E. coli that’s spreading across Europe came from, but some believe it may have been spurred by the overmedication of cattle. And there are lots of cattle in Kentucky—more than any other state east of the Mississippi. At a farm in Oldham County, cows are lying in the shade with their calves to escape the midday sun. Foxhollow Farm has 250 cattle which are fed grass, not grain, which cows can’t properly digest and is often laced with antibiotics. All of the meat Foxhollow sells is antibiotic-free.

The official line from the government in Yemen is that President Ali Abdullah Saleh is "alive and will soon make a nationwide address," Reuters reports, following word of an attack on the presidential palace and an earlier claim by some in the opposition that he had been killed.

The Associated Press says it's been told by a government official that Saleh was slightly injured. Yemen's deputy prime minister was more seriously injured, according to the official.