Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• About what "middle class" means across major American cities? —Tal Rosenberg

• About the crass politics that lead Bruce Rauner and other GOP governors to exempt police and firefighters from their public-sector union "reforms"? —Steve Bogira

• That if Bruce Rauner's budget is approved we're likely to see fare increases and longer wait times for CTA, Metra, and Pace? —Tal Rosenberg

• About the lawsuit that seeks to change the incredibly shitty wages minor-league baseball players are paid? (It's currently $1,100 per month, in season only.) —Kate Schmidt

• The devastating news that cheap wine may contain high levels of arsenic? —Brianna Wellen

• About one example of same-sex marriage in early-19th-century Vermont? —John Dunlevy

• About how Typee, Herman Melville's memoir of his time in Polynesia, was probably made up? —Tal Rosenberg

• That a band of intellectual vandals has spray-painted "Kant is a moron," along with a flower and a heart, on the philosopher's house in Kaliningrad, Russia? (Police are investigating, but "with Arthur Schopenhauer dead for 155 years . . . authorities start off with few strong leads.") —Aimee Levitt

• That after a first-round two-under-par 70, Arnold Palmer's grandson Sam Saunders is just four strokes off the lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational? —Steve Bogira

• About the cat cafe coming to Chicago? —Brianna Wellen

• This IndieWire Q&A with comic H. Jon Benjamin of Bob's Burgers, et alia? —Kate Schmidt