New York in the gilded age was a city of epic contrasts. Top-hatted swells in glossy carriages promenaded uptown, while just a few blocks south, poverty, crime and overcrowding were the order of the day.

And vice, let's not forget vice. New York was what was called a "wide-open" town, with gambling, prostitution and liquor available on almost every corner. The cops and the Democratic machine politicians of Tammany Hall mostly looked the other way — when they weren't actively involved.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering Sunday from a heart transplant he received at a Virginia hospital.

As NPR's Don Gonyea reported: "Cheney had been on a waiting list for a new heart for more than 20 months, ever since surgery in 2010 to install a pump and external battery to deal with was described as 'end stage heart failure.'"

A statement released Saturday by a Cheney aide said that the former vice president and his family do not know the donor's identity. The statement said the family will be "forever grateful for this lifesaving gift."

March 31st, 2012 from 12-6, the inaugural 'Little Owl Festival' happens at Audubon Acres on Sanctuary Road in Chattanooga.    Two stages will be set up for music and spoken word performances.   Save our American Raptors will fly birds of prey over the fields during the afternoon.    For more details about the 'Little Owl Festival' click here.     Listen to the story with Ray Zimmerman, Finn Bille and Peggy Douglas, 3 of the scheduled performers for the festival.

The newest album from the folk outfit Lost in the Trees is a very personal one. Ari Picker, the creative force behind the band, began writing the songs for A Church That Fits Our Needs after the death of his mother, Karen Shelton. She was an artist herself, one who struggled with mental illness throughout her life. In 2008, she killed herself.

Not one second of the six hours of arguments on the health care law will be either seen or heard in real time by anyone not at the Supreme Court. The nation's highest court has turned down requests to allow live broadcasts of this week's historic proceedings.

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SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Susan Stamberg. Rachel Martin is on assignment.

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In NCAA men's basketball, the Louisville Cardinals and Ohio State Buckeyes have qualified for the Final Four. Later today, two more teams will join them after Kentucky plays Baylor and Kansas faces North Carolina. With so much basketball peppered with reversals and upsets, it's hard to deny the madness of March. But, as NPR's Mike Pesca reports, most coaches try desperately to keep it at bay.

President Obama is in South Korea Sunday to take part in a multilateral conference aimed at curbing nuclear proliferation. He arrives in South Korea at a time of considerable tension. North Korea is threatening to carry out a long-range rocket launch in April, an action the U.S. has warned it should not take.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has undergone a heart transplant in a hospital near Washington. Cheney, 71, was on the waiting list for a heart for 20 months, which is longer than the average wait time in the Washington area. His prognosis remains uncertain.

Pope Benedict XVI gives an open-air Mass in Mexico Sunday and, on his way there, will bless the Christ the King monument, an important symbol of Mexican Catholicism.