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Tonight, the Chicago Bulls may clinch the National Basketball Association playoffs with a win against the Seattle SuperSonics. Chicago is gearing up for the game with enthusiasm --- and with some trepidation. The last two times the Bulls won championships, the city endured looting and some rioting. NPR's Edward Lifson reports that this time the city, the Bulls management and local merchants are doing what they can to prevent and minimize any looting that may follow the game.

Smog season in Los Angeles, where the air is dirtier than in any other city, is approaching. But as NPR's Mandalit DelBarco reports, L.A. has achieved huge reductions in air pollution over the past two decades, despite the city's reputation for lung-searing smog. Though new kinds of gas, cleaner industry and better cars are part of the solution, lots of little things have helped as well--like cleaner backyard barbecues.

Korva talks with Catherine Sneed, director of the Garden Project in San Francisco. The program provides an opportunity for inmates and newly-released former prisoners to get their lives back on track by planting trees around the city and raising flowers and vegetables for the city's restaurants and homeless shelters. Korva also talks with Anthony Travis, a former inmate now in the program who says his life has benefitted from his involvement in the the Garden Project.

Deborah talks with NPR's Michael Skoler, who visited the strategic city of Kisangani in northeast Zaire today. Zairean rebels are advancing on the city, which is the base for the government's military operations. If Kisangani falls, many believe that would signal the end of the government of President Mobutu Sese Seko (mo-BOO-too SAY-SAY SAY-ko), who has ruled the vast central African nation for more than three decades. (4:00) CUTAWAY 2C 0:59 2D

NPR's Michael Sullivan reports that Sri Lankans went to the polls today to elect a new parliament, but in the city of Jaffna, residents seem disinterested in the results. They don't believe that the election will end the 17-year war between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists, who are fighting for control of the region. The government currently has control of Jaffna, but the rebels are fighting hard to take the city, which they view as the cultural and spiritual home of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.

Urban Chinese are embracing the Internet. One especially popular site is Ninth City, which provides an imaginary world. Men and women can plan weddings, invite guests, set up registries and tie the knot -- multiple times. There are half-a-million bloggers now. But a digital divide remains between wired city dwellers and poor, often illiterate country peasants.

Cawker City, Kans., boasts one of America's great roadside attractions: the world's largest ball of sisal twine. Is the claim really true? NPR's Steve Inskeep investigates in a conversation with Kay Thull of the Cawker City Community Club.

White-and-middle-class black flight to the suburbs has left Detroit's landscape pockmarked with abandoned homes and buildings. The city has demolished some of these structures. But not everyone agrees bulldozing is the best solution.

NPR's Ivan Watson reports that U.S. forces are working hard to win public support in Mosul -- the city where American troops have met their greatest resistance. Tensions are running high in this northern Iraqi city, long a bastion of Arab nationalism and considerable support for Saddam Hussein. The influx of Kurds has the Arab majority edgy, and they're taking out their frustrations on U.S. troops.

The Italian city of Turin is about to take the world stage as the host of the 2006 Winter Olympics, but its citizens seem rather blasé about the event. This northern Italian city is a complex mixture of the old and the modern, and it has seen enough history to be unfazed by a single sporting or media event.