My picks (Game winner in BOLD): L-Ville (+ 9) over Kentucky, Ohio State (-2 1/2) over Kansas (7 units.)

Ronde van Vlaanderen tomorrow. Give me Cancellara.

Open Thread.

The "Walmart of Weed" is opening in Washington, DC, just blocks from the White House and federal buildings.

Lindsay Lohan is released from supervised probation with praise from the Judge. She still has two more years of unsupervised probation.

14 years for Rod Blagojevich and 10 days for his former Chief of Staff Robert Harris who cooperated with the Government. Harris was Blago's chief of staff for three years, from 2005 through 2008. [More...]

More from me on the SCOTUS and ACA.

Update: (TL): Here's the transcript from today's oral argument. You can also listen via these links.

Here are Monday's transcript and audio and Tuesday's transcript and audio.

Open Thread.

My preview of today SCOTUS oral argument on the mandate.

Open Thread.

Amnesty International has released its report on the global use of the death penalty in 2011. The full report is available here. The U.S. ranks 5th in the world for the number of executions. The only countries executing more people were China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, Great company we're in.

MegaUpload news: Turns out, the same major studios behind the push to take MegaUpload down tried to make licensing deals with it and have MegaUpload host copyrighted content.

In Toulouse news, slain gunman Mohamed Merah will be flown to Algeria for burial. And footage from his recorded videos of his killings were mailed to Al Jazeera. Police don't know whether he mailed them the night before he was killed or an accomplice mailed them the day he was killed. Al Jazeera turned them over to police.

I'm about to watch The Voice and Smash. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Health care arguments in the Supreme Court, Trayvon Martin, and the Toulouse killings are still dominating the news. Dominique Strauss-Kahn's motion to dismiss the civil case brought by Nafissatou Diallo will be heard Wednesday. The hearing won't address the underlying allegations, only issues of diplomatic immunity.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I pick Louisville (+1 1/2) over Florida, Ohio State -3 over Syracuse, Kansas over North Carolina over and Kentucky over Baylor.

Open Thread.

Open thread.

Someone agrees with me:

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary Clinton's protegee and replacement in the Senate, says she'll ask the Secretary of State to run for President in 2016. [...] "I'm going to be one of the first to ask Hillary to run in 2016," Gillibrand told BuzzFeed, saying she "certainly hope[s]" Clinton will run for president.

"I think she would be incredibly well-poised to be our next Democratic president," Gillibrand said. "I think she's extremely well prepared. I think her experience as Secretary of State has not only elevated her stature and experience, but she's proven she's someone who can get things done and I think she'd be an outstanding candidate."

Also this: "Gillibrand's words also a rebuke to her own governor, Andrew Cuomo, who also appears to be positioning himself for a future White House run." STOP Cuomo!!!

Speaking for me only

The picks:

Wisconsin +4 over Syracuse; Michigan State -5 over Louisville; Ohio State -7½ over Cincinnati; North Carolina -10½ over Ohio; Marquette -1½ over Florida; Indiana +9 over Kentucky; Baylor -6 over Xavier; NC State (+8) over Kansas.

Open Thread.

I'll be offline this afternoon, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Welcome, Spring.

Brooke Mueller, Charlie Sheen's ex-wife, got a deferred judgment deal yesterday to felony possession of less than 4 grams of cocaine in Aspen. She'll be on supervised probation for three years.

[Judge Gail] Nichols asked her what would happen if she runs afoul of the law again during her deferred sentence.

“Ohhh, I’m in big trouble,” Mueller said.

Anyone see Michelle Obama on Letterman last night? [More...]