Book Him, Danno: Donald Trump on Saturday issued a screed on his Truth Social website announcing that he expects to be arrested tomorrow by New York authorities on charges related to his $130,000 payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels. The capitals are his:

“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL

MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE. WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW

RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY

GEORGE SOROS. INDICATE THAT. WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE

PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER

PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE. THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN

CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR

NATION BACK!”

  Several news outlets say one more witness is appearing before the grand jury today. Trump’s lawyer said the former president would surrender voluntarily if or when the arrest warrant is issued.

  Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has testified that he fronted the hush money on the eve of the 2016 election to silence Daniels about an affair with Trump and was reimbursed by Trump. The theory of prosecution would be that Trump violated election law, but analysts say it’s not a slam dunk case. Both the federal election Commission and federal prosecutors chose to bring no action against the former president.

The War Room:  Chinese leader Xi Jinping, arrived in Moscow today on what he has described as a mission of peace to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. It’s a worrisome alliance as Putin pursues his war in Ukraine.

  Putin over the weekend went to the destroyed and occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol in his first visit to captured territory since the start of his war more than a year ago. 

  Mariupol was the site of an heroic last stand by Ukrainian troops in a shattered steel plant. An estimated 1,300 civilians died in the siege.

  Putin was reported to have flown in by helicopter and toured several neighborhoods, sometimes stopping to speak with residents. An adviser to Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky posted on Twitter, “The criminal always returns to the crime scene.”

The Money Pit: UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, has agreed to buy its foundering rival Credit Suisse in an emergency rescue deal to stave off panic in the finance world.  UBS said the purchase would “secure financial stability and protect the Swiss economy.”

  UBS is paying $3.25 billion, about 60% less than Credit Suisse was worth when markets closed on Friday. 

Political Corrections: San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is considering a massive plan of reparations for the city’s eligible Black residents to make amends for the country’s history of slavery. The proposals include a one-time payment of $5 million to each adult and complete clearing of personal debt, including credit cards, taxes, and student loans. Black residents would also be able to collect an annual income of at least $97,000 for 250 years and buy homes within the city limits for just $1.

  San Francisco has one of the lowest percentage of Black residents among American cities. By some estimates, the plan would cost White residents $600,000 each.

The Gender Beat: Wellesley College, the 153-year old women’s college in Massachusetts is wrestling with gender in the current age of gender identification in which the difference between men and women is blurring, certainly on college campuses.

  Wellesley students last week approved a ballot initiative proposing that the school should change its admissions policy to admit all qualified transgender and nonbinary applicants. 

  Currently, the school only accepts applicants  “who live as women and consistently identify as women,” which includes trans women and nonbinary students who “were assigned female at birth and who feel they belong in our community of women.”

  The student initiative also called on the school to use gender-neutral language when referring to its student body in official communications, for example replacing “women” with “students” and “they/them” instead of “she/her.”

  Women’s colleges in the US were founded at a time when the male world thought higher education for women was unnecessary. 

  “While we acknowledge that Wellesley College was founded as a college for women, we recognize the many transgender and gender non-conforming students and alumni,” says the ballot question, which claims it proposed the changes “to align the College’s messaging with the demographics and lived experiences of the student body.”

March Madness: As the upsets continue, Arkansas elbowed out number one seed Kansas by just 72-71 in a second-round victory. 

  Princeton on Saturday beat Missouri to reach the final 16 for the first time since 1967. Blake Peters hit five three-pointers in the second half in the 78-63 Princeton win over the tournament’s #7 seed.

The Spin Rack: The City of Miami Beach issued a state of emergency and a midnight curfew in the midst of Spring Break following two fatal shootings and “excessively large and unruly crowds.” — Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee sanders signed the bill that will allow the creation of a privately funded “monument to the unborn” on the Capitol grounds, marking the number of abortions performed in Arkansas before the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. — Five young people ages 8 to 17, all related, were killed early yesterday in the flaming crash of an SUV on a Westchester County, NY parkway. An 8-year-old survived. — Directors of the  National Audubon Society’s board last week rejected the idea of changing the organization’s name, setting off resignations of board members and plans by local groups to rename themselves anyway. The society for the love and preservation of birds was named for naturalist John James Audubon, who was a slave owner. 

Below the Fold: A 5000-mile blob of Atlantic seaweed is headed for the shores of Florida and other East Coast states. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is likely to blame it on the “woke mob.”

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