The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is set amid hearings over player compensation. There’s an upcoming municipal election in Ferguson and a possible recall of the city’s mayor. And a sled dog isn’t letting blindness stop her from glory.
A man has been arrested in connection with the shooting of two Ferguson police officers at a protest last week. Jeffrey Williams, 20, was charged on Sunday with two counts of first-degree assault. Williams confessed to the shooting, but maintained that he was not aiming at the officers. Authorities said he had attended the protest that was taking place Wednesday night and into the early hours of Thursday, when the officers were shot, but he maintains the shooting was related to another dispute unrelated to the protest. The officers suffered serious but non-fatal injuries. Both have since been treated and released from the hospital.
And a little extra. Ferguson will vote in a municipal election on April 7 — the city's first election since a white police officer shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August. Four of the candidates for city council are black; the city has had only three black council candidates in the past 120 years. The city council can play a major role in shaping Ferguson's recovery and future, BuzzFeed News' Jim Dalrymple II reports from Ferguson.
Ferguson's mayor also faces a possible recall. Five anonymous residents filed a petition asking Mayor James Knowles to resign. They need 15% of the city's registered voters to sign the petition within 60 days to force a special election. The petition comes in the wake of the resignations of Ferguson's police chief and city manager.
The death toll is expected to rise after Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu on Friday and Saturday. Eight people have been confirmed dead, at least 20 are injured and thousands are homeless. The Pacific island chain's government said the category 5 storm is the worst disaster in the nation's history, The Guardian reports. President Baldwin Lonsdale said he fears "the very, very, very worst" damage is in the country's remote outer islands.
The aftermath of the cyclone
Handout / Getty
The NCAA men's basketball tournament field is set. The top four seeds are Kentucky, Villanova, Duke, and Wisconsin. Kentucky is undefeated so far this year. If Kentucky wins the tournament, the team will finish the season 40-0, making for the first perfect season since Indiana in 1976. The field for the women's tournament will be announced tonight. And thanks to the Washington Post, you can get your March Madness on with school-specific emojis.
What's next? Your co-workers will be distracted by college basketball starting on Thursday, when the men's tournament begins. Meanwhile, a panel of federal judges will hear arguments this week about whether the NCAA's policy of not paying its players violates antitrust laws. There's a lot of money in college sports, but not for the players (except for their scholarships). Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski made $9.7 million last year, and TV deals during the tournament are worth millions.
