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One of the alleged shooters in the San Bernardino attack came to the United States on a K-1, or fiancé, visa. NPR's Richard Gonzales looks at how obtaining a fiancé visa isn't easy and may get tougher.

The unexpected origins of Pogs, the slow pace of bike-friendly cities and the grim aftermath of a boxing match: NPR staff recommend three pieces that stopped them in their tracks.

Rita Sotu is 73 years old, and she remembers taking Cleveland’s streetcars downtown with her mom. Now, she’s on a tour of the old subway and rail system under the Veterans Memorial Bridge. “It was always so much fun because we loved to come downtown and ride the trolleys.”

Divorce is often an unpleasant thing, but Lisa Scottoline did derive a major benefit when she and her first husband went their separate ways. It helped lead to her career as a best-selling crime writer.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has more than half a million dollars on hand for his reelection bid as the September primary approaches. With a campaign war chest of $703,782, the three-term mayor has far more money than any of his opponents, according to semi-annual financial disclosures made this week. Jackson raised $559,367 in the first half of this year. His next closest competitor, Councilman Zack Reed, raised $57,350. Jeff Johnson, another councilman challenging the mayor, filed the day after the deadline and reported raising $55,540.

Northeast Ohio will be represented at this year’s Grammy Awards. “Songs of Orpheus,” nominated for best classical solo vocal album, features Cleveland’s Apollo’s Fire and vocalist Karim Sulayman. It was produced locally by Erica Brenner of Shaker Heights. Brenner said she screamed with excitement when she saw the nominations included “Songs of Orpheus.”

Around noon on Wednesday, Cleveland’s West Side Market was unusually quiet. The temperature was a few degrees below zero, and over half of the vendors had decided not to open for the day, due to the same arctic conditions that had shut down schools, suspended city services, and forced many government offices to operate on a skeleton staff.

Two former Cuyahoga County officials and one current employee pleaded not guilty to charges in Common Pleas Court Monday. Judge Nancy Fuerst presided over their arraignments and set a $10,000 personal bond for each defendant. Former IT general counsel Emily McNeeley, former jail director Kenneth Mills and current Chief Talent Officer Douglas Dykes made their first appearances in court after a grand jury indicted them last month on a range of felony and misdemeanor charges.

A Cuyahoga County Inspector General’s report says there’s evidence former county jail director Kenneth Mills likely made anti-gay remarks about two employees. The report, which was completed in January, also outlines other allegations of derogatory comments made about County Executive Armond Budish and Sheriff Clifford Pinkney. “Three county employees separately heard Mills make different discriminatory comments regarding the perceived sexual orientation of a subordinate employee and a contractor,” the report concluded.

Ali Black read “Citizen: An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine twice, and she now she is reading it a third time with local students. “The first time I read ‘Citizen’ I had like a sigh of relief," Black said. "I was like, ‘thank God somebody is writing these types of poems and having this conversation.’” In “Citizen,” Rankine writes about racism in everyday life and what it feels like through a collection of poems.