World: Russia turned down the Cyprus appeal for financial aid and the dreaded bank deposit tax is “back on the table” according to the country’s finance minister. Cyprus is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, facing a Monday deadline to repay the European Union about $7.6 billion.

National: The Senate passed a $3.7 trillion budget that would cut spending by $400 billion over ten years and raise taxes by $1 trillion. It does nothing to resolve the differences with the Republican plan.

• The FAA announced a list of 149 towers at small airfields that will be closed starting next month to save money under the federal budget sequester. Takeoffs and landings will have to be done without ground controllers. Pilots will have to coordinate between themselves, something they should be able to do.
• More budget cutting news. The City of Chicago announced plans to close 54 schools to help close a $1 billion budget shortfall. The move will save $560 over the next ten years, but the impact is hard to gauge.  Many of the closures will be in gang-infested neighborhoods.

GitMo: Rather than close the notorious prison for terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon is now considering building a $49 million prison. Most of the original structures were built to last months, not years. President Obama promised in his first election campaign to close GitMo prison, but hasn’t.

Personhood: North Dakota legislature became the first to pass a bill declaring that personhood begins at the moment of fertilization, and banning all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest. The measure still has to be approved by voters in the fall before it becomes law.

Hoop Dreams: Harvard won its first ever NCAA basketball playoff game topping New Mexico 68-62. Harvard goes up against the Arizona Wildcats today. Fight on Harvard, Fight on.

Passings: Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian author of the famed novel “Things Fall Apart”, has died at 82. The novel was published in 1958 when he was just 28, and has sold millions of copies around the world in many languages ever since. The book was inspired by his family history and rooted in early anti-British colonial sentiments.

• The last survivor of the first team to climb Mt. Everest has died in England at age 89. New Zealander George Lowe was with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953. Lowe also was part of a team that made the first overland crossing of the Antarctic straight across the South Pole in 1957-58.

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