Eyder Peralta

"I'm going Big Ten, this year," President Obama told ESPN this morning, while he filled out his NCAA tournament bracket.

The bottom line: Obama picked Indiana, Florida, Louisville and Ohio State to advance to the final four.

Obama predicted the championship game will be played between Louisville and Indiana, which ...

Don't tell Chicago, Buffalo or Minneapolis — which will see high temperatures just in the 20s, today — but at 7:02 a.m. ET., the Earth's axis was neither tilted from nor toward the sun, marking the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere.

So: Happy spring equinox!

The National ...

The head of Colorado's Department of Corrections was shot and killed after answering the front door of his home.

Gov. John Hickenlooper made the announcement in an email sent to corrections employees.

"I can hardly believe it, let alone write words to describe it," Hickenlooper wrote.

The AP ...

The race to fill South Carolina's 1st Congressional District has gotten quite a bit of attention. Mostly because of the cast of politicians vying for the seat vacated when Tim Scott was appointed to Senate by Gov. Nikki Haley.

After a primary, yesterday, we're have a clearer picture of ...

President Obama landed in Israel this morning, marking the first time he visits the country as president.

"I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our nations, to restate America's unwavering commitment to Israel's security and to speak directly to the people of Israel and ...

NFL owners passed two rules aimed at improving player safety, today.

The Associated Press reports:

"The owners outlawed peel-back blocks anywhere on the field; previously, they were illegal only inside the tackle box. A player makes a peel-back block when he is moving toward his goal line, approaches ...

The National Park Service is almost finished with extensive repairs at the Statue of Liberty site and they expect to reopen it to the public by July 4th.

The damage was caused by Hurricane Sandy. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a statement that the hurricane damaged ...

You thought our politics were bad. If you need a fresh reminder that it could be worse: Official business at Ukraine's parliament was suspended for a short time, while MPs exchanged punches.

Russia Today has video:

And an explanation as to what caused the brawl:

"The brawl began ...

The FBI says it believes it knows who perpetrated the biggest art museum heist in history.

In a press release issued today, the FBI said it is seeking new leads on a theft that took place in 1990 at the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston. As The ...

Some terrific news today: Malala Yousafzai's story has come full circle. If you remember, the Pakistani teenager was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman because she was in favor of girls receiving an education.

After her shooting, a moribund Malala was flown to England to recover and ...

Aaron Jackson took inspiration from a 9-year-old kid who stood up to Westboro Baptist Church protesters.

As Mark wrote last year, Josef Miles stood in front of protesters carrying signs that read "God Hates [Gays]" with his own sign that read "God Hates No One."

Today, Jackson is following ...

It's déjà vu for the NCAA women's basketball tournament. Exactly like last year, Baylor, Connecticut, Notre Dame and Stanford were seeded No. 1, when the women's bracket was announced Monday night.

The AP reports:

"Unlike the men's side, where it was a topsy-turvy season with major upsets seemingly ...

In their first meeting since Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, Argentina's President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner asked the pontiff to "mediate" in the dispute over the Falkland Islands.

"This is an important moment for us," Kirchner said, during a press conference following the lunch meeting. "I asked him ...

We promise, we'll get back to real news in a little bit. But first: After weeks of rumors, the sports icons Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn have made it official: They are dating.

"I guess it wasn't a well-kept secret but yes, I am dating Tiger Woods," Vonn, the Olympic ...

The first person to challenge a file-sharing lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry Association of America has reached the end of the line.

Without comment, the Supreme Court refused to hear Jammie Thomas-Rasset's appeal, which means the $222,000 verdict against her stands.

Thomas-Rasset was convicted of sharing 24 songs ...

President Obama announced today he is nominating Thomas Perez, currently in charge of civil rights at the Justice Department, to be the country's next Labor secretary.

Introducing him in the East Room of the White House, Obama said Perez "knows what it's like to climb the ladder of opportunity," and ...

A week after the Arkansas legislature passed the strictest measure in the country on abortion, North Dakota's legislature passed a bill that goes further and would ban abortions as soon as a heartbeat is detected.

Arkansas' bill banned abortions after 12 weeks; North Dakota's could ban them as early ...

A federal judge in California ruled today that the FBI cannot secretly demand data from banks and phone companies in national security cases. The judge said orders that keep those requests secret violate the First Amendment.

NPR's Carrie Johnson filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"The demands known ...

We've explained it many times: Physicists are irked when we in the media call the Higgs Boson, "The God Particle."

The Higgs is important because the elusive subatomic particle is believed to give everything its mass. But as Marcelo Gleiser — of NPR's 13.7 — explained, the ...

With a vote today in the House of Delegates, Maryland's General Assembly has approved a bill that abolishes the death penalty in the state.

If signed into law by Gov. Martin O'Malley, which is expected, Maryland will become the 18th state to end capital punishment.

The Baltimore Sun reports: