The New Republic

March Madness has finally come to an end, and the Kentucky Wildcats are the national champions. It wasn’t exactly a surprising end to the tournament—Kentucky was one of the season’s most dominant teams—but it still meant lighter wallets for everyone who chose poorly in their office pools. Choosing one winning team from 64 tournament hopefuls isn’t easy, but have statisticians come up with a method that beats picking the higher seeds and making a few lucky guesses? READ MORE >>

If you’ve been unable to access your favorite Al Qaeda online forums for the last week and a half, it turns out you’re not alone: Five of the terrorist group’s main websites have gone dark in the last several days, a shutdown so severe that it may indicate a cyberattack “launched perhaps by a government, government-backed organization or hacking group.” How plausible is that explanation—and what could it mean for the Al Qaeda’s oper READ MORE >>

Yesterday the Government of Canada announced it was eliminating the penny from Canada’s coinage system. The provided reasons: Its declining spending power, rising production costs (1.6 cents per penny), and the harsh reality that “some Canadians consider the penny more of a nuisance than a useful coin.” Likewise, other countries have been re-evaluating their lowest-denomination coins, with Australia, Norway, and Switzerland among those that have already stopped circulating them. READ MORE >>

It is widely assumed that sometime today, the nine Supreme Court Justices will cast their initial vote in the landmark health care suit they heard earlier this week. Their final say won’t be public until late June, so in the meantime, we’ll all have to distract ourselves with educated guesses. One such guess, put forth by David Lauter for the LA Times, predicted doom for the government’s case. READ MORE >>

In the wake of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin’s death in Florida’s, much has been made of the “Stand Your Ground” law, and the soundness of letting people who feel threatened use deadly force instead of trying to flee. READ MORE >>

The Mega Millions jackpot reached a record high of $500 million today, news which has no doubt led to a rash of half-serious ticket-buying by normally judicious spenders. They, along with the rest of the regular scratchers, shouldn’t hold out much hope: The odds of winning the lottery, Mega Millions officials report, are about one in 176 million. READ MORE >>

Yesterday, the Supreme Court took on the constitutionality of Obamacare’s individual mandate—and in the opinion of nearly every observer, things did not go well. It’s hard to say how much the Supremes will be influenced by the Solicitor General’s underwhelming performance, especially since most legal analysts seem to think the mandate, regardless of how well the administration defended it, is perfectly constitutional. READ MORE >>

Every campaign season has nauseating moments, but this is a standout: An anti-Obama bumper sticker which has gone viral—and which warns voters not to “Re-Nig” this time around. Forbes managed to get an interview with the sticker’s vendor, who made the incredible claim that her product is not racist. READ MORE >>

According to documents taken from his compound and obtained by the Washington Post, Osama bin Laden “commanded his network to organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Obama and Gen. David H. Petraeus.” The documents indicate that bin Laden had a specific person in mind for the job: Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri. According to administration officials, the plan never got very far. READ MORE >>

Though the recovery seems to be speeding up, the U.S. economy remains weak, and the country has a long way to go before returning to full employment. One of the major forces holding back economic growth is the persistently-weak housing market, which continues to be the subject of intense debate. READ MORE >>