Mythili Rao

There's a lot of money to be made off March Madness. At $122 billion, the amount of spending the NCAA's annual basketball tournament generates is equal to Iceland's GDP. That total includes $614 million in TV advertising, $300 million in NCAA merchandise, and $185 million in corporate sponsorship. So why aren't the athletes paid?

On February 26th, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black high school student was visiting his father in Sanford, Florida and watching the NBA All-Star game at a house in a gated community. At halftime, he walked to 7-Eleven to buy Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea. He was on his way back to the house when a neighborhood crime watch volunteer named George Zimmerman noticed him. Zimmerman was patrolling the neighborhood in his SUV. He called 911 to report "a real suspicious guy," and then took off after Martin. The details of what happened next are unclear, but other 911 calls from neighbors record screams for help and a gunshot. Martin was discovered dead with a bullet to his chest.

After a strong victory in Puerto Rico's primary race last week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is hoping to repeat his success with a win in the Illinois primary. Romney and a Super PAC backing him have spent more than $3 million in Illinois. At stake are 54 delegates — and the chance to reclaim momentum. Although polling in Illinois has consistently shown Romney in the lead, Santorum's victories in neighboring Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri suggest he has built support in the region.

Until just a few weeks ago, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was known simply as a former high school football captain, an American patriot who joined the Army after 9/11, a husband, a son, and a father of two. Now, he’s a prisoner at a detention facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan in an incident that’s been called one of the worst war crimes of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. As new facts about Bales' life emerge — including details about foot and head injuries and a mild traumatic brain injury he suffered — it appears that this could shape into a complicated legal case for the Army.

In the days since former Goldman Sachs vice president Greg Smith resigned with a scalding New York Times Op-Ed, the company's reputation has come under fire on all sides. But how fair has the criticism been? And what can Goldman do to rehabilitate its image?

Gas prices rose for the ninth straight day Sunday. The average price for a gallon of gasoline is now $3.83 — not that far from July 2008’s record high of $4.11. In fact, gas prices are already more than $4 a gallon in seven states. As gas prices have risen, they’ve also increasingly become a touchy political talking point. This week President Obama is setting off on a four state tour to promote and defend his energy policies. He'll stop in Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oklahoma.

When President Obama became the first black president in 2008, it seemed to mark a tremendous historical turning point for black representation in American political life. But four years later there has been no great renaissance in black electoral representation. If the number of office-holders was demographically proportionate, there would be at least 12 African American senators and six governors. In reality, there are currently no African-American senators and only one African-American governor in office.

Sports Illustrated called it the greatest college basketball ever played. It took place in the NCAA basketball tournament 20 years ago. With just moments left in the game Duke was trailing Kentucky by a point. Duke's Grant Hill threw a pass all the way down the length of the court to teammate Christian Laettner who put in a final jump shot as time ran out. Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin remembers that moment well -- and he says it holds the key to understanding why March Madness is so special.

Rick Santorum won both GOP primaries in the South yesterday. He took 35 percent of the vote in Alabama and 33 percent in Mississippi. Do these results spell the end of the road for Newt Gingrich? And what does this mean for Tuesday's third-place winner, delegate leader Mitt Romney?

We've been asking our listeners this week about their relationships with their jobs. One thing that's touched a nerve is the question of far young workers are willing to go to find good opportunities. Many younger listeners told us they were open to taking a risk and moving somewhere new, but it just wasn't a decision they could afford to make. However we did also hear from more than a few listeners who did manage to take a leap.

Many details about the 38-year-old American solider who allegedly killed 16 Afghan civilians in a shooting spree are still unknown. However, the picture that is emerging is one of a career soldier under tremendous stress. Military sources say the gunman was married with two children. Although this was his first deployment in Afghanistan, he had over 10 years of service, including tours in Iraq. He also is reported to have previously suffered a traumatic brain injury and to have had problems at home after his last deployment. Despite those issues, the soldier — who is based at Fort Lewis in Washington state — was still deemed fit for combat duty.

On Monday, the Justice Department blocked a new Texas voter identification law on the basis that the law would disproportionately affect Hispanics and that it violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law would have required all Texas voters to show some form of photo ID before voting. This past December, the Justice Department blocked a similar law in South Carolina, saying it adversely affected African-American voters.

The controversy over these laws is far from over. Both South Carolina and Texas have filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Washington arguing in favor of their new voting laws, and they will take their cases to the Supreme Court if necessary.

"Today’s generation is literally going nowhere." That’s the argument Todd Buchholz and his daughter Victoria make in a recent Op-Ed published in The New York Times. Census Bureau data shows that the chance a 20-something will move to another state has fallen more than 40 percent since the 1980s. Meanwhile, the proportion of young adults living at home has nearly doubled. The Buchholzes say what we’re seeing is a shift in attitude — and that today, more than ever, young people are less willing to leave their hometowns to find better opportunities.

Sunday morning's shooting, which killed at least 16 Afghan villagers, including nine children and three women, raises many questions: how much does this imperil the US mission in Afghanistan? And is it time for an earlier troop withdrawal? Michael Semple, former deputy to the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Nick Colgin, a medic stationed in Afghanistan from January 2007 to April 2008, join the show to explain the possible ramifications of Sunday's act of violence. 

Immigration reform has been a hot button topic in this campaign cycle — but for all the talk, there hasn’t been much real action. As the government stalls on immigration reform, many private citizens are taking actions into their own hands. It’s a 21st century “Underground Railroad” of sorts — a network of Americans who are quietly finding ways to assist their undocumented neighbors and friends, particularly the young people whose parents brought them here illegally as children. About 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools each year.

More and more college graduates cannot find a job in the field marked on their degree. But student loans won't wait, so many resort to working in the service industry at places like Walmart and Starbucks just to stay financially afloat. How long will this generation of college-education blue collar workers wait for the jobs they want?

A fight over abortion in Texas could lead to a shutdown of a major women's health care program. Texas’s federally-funded Women's Health Program serves 130,000 women who don’t meet strict Medicaid eligibility requirements. The program also supports many clinics, including branches of Planned Parenthood. But Republican lawmakers who don’t want Planned Parenthood to get any funding say they will give up 35 million dollars in federal money — effectively shutting down the program. For many low-income Texas women, that would mean the loss of access to the only health care services they have.

International Women's Day honors courageous women around the world like Fatma El-Mehdi, the first woman from the Western Sahara to attend a UN conference on women's rights. Ever since fleeing her home as a child, she has been dedicated to the cause of a free Western Sahara. There's another issue she's equally passionate about, however: women's rights.

A Fox Latino poll of likely voters released earlier this week showed 70 percent supporting President Obama and just 14 percent supporting Governor Mitt Romney. The same poll also seems to indicate that the Republican party is having trouble winning new Latino voters -- and keeping Latino voters who have favored the GOP in the past. Poll numbers indicated that four of five Latinos who voted for Obama in 2008 planned vote for him again later this year. Meanwhile, among Latinos who voted for Republican Arizona Senator John McCain four years ago only 40 percent now say they support Obama.