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This post is being updated throughout the day Saturday.

An international search is underway for a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that's been missing for more than 24 hours. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard when it took off from Kuala Lumpur early Saturday on a flight bound for Beijing.

A regular inspection of the missing Boeing 777-200 found no technical problems 10 days ago, reports China's state-run Xinhua news agency, citing a Malaysia Airlines spokesman.

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A tense standoff between pro-Russian troops and Ukrainian forces at a missile-defense base in Crimea on Friday is reportedly over without a shot being fired.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported Friday that a Russian military truck had smashed through the gate of the Ukrainian based in Sevastopol, the port city that is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Interfax, quoted by The Associated Press, says about 100 Ukrainian troops are stationed at the base and about 20 "attackers" entered, some throwing stun grenades, the report said.

The Ukrainians barricaded themselves inside one of their barracks, Interfax said.

The BBC says "the assailants and lorries reportedly left after "negotiations."

Reuters reports:

"Crimea's pro-Russia premier, Sergei Aksyonov, was asked about the incident during a political chat show shown live on Ukrainian television and said all was calm at the military post."

"Referring to the [armed attackers] as 'self-defence units,' he indicated the standoff was over, adding: 'Now the self-defence units are surrounded by journalists. There are no attempts to attack.'"

"A Ukrainian military official told Reuters at the post that the armed group inside had not seized any [of the base's] weapons."

"Russian forces have taken over some military installations and other buildings on the peninsula, where Russia's Black Sea Fleet has a base, but both sides have held their fire."

A California lawmaker has proposed a measure that would prohibit SeaWorld San Diego from using orcas in its shows.

Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat, says the documentary Blackfish, which examines the 2010 death of a SeaWorld trainer by a captive orca, inspired him to push the bill.

Blackfish, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, also highlights other incidents in which trainers were either hurt or had close calls with orcas, also known as killer whales. Filmmakers also detail what they say are cramped living conditions for the marine mammals, which are the centerpiece of SeaWorld's acrobatic shows.

"There is no justification for the continued captive display of orcas for entertainment purposes," Bloom said Friday. "These beautiful creatures are much too large and far too intelligent to be confined in small, concrete tanks for their entire lives."

SeaWorld Entertainment, the parent company that also runs parks in Orlando, Fla., and San Antonio, Texas, has called Blackfish "propaganda," saying "the film conveys falsehoods, manipulates viewers emotionally, and relies on questionable filmmaking techniques to create 'facts' that support its point of view." The company says Blackfish gives the false impression that conditions at the parks are harmful to whales and trainers and that SeaWorld has covered up information related to fatal 2010 training mishaps.

The New York Times reported last month that:

"Blackfish has become a rallying point for those who oppose the use of killer whales for entertainment in the SeaWorld parks, and it has drawn large audiences in theaters and on TV. But SeaWorld has defended its practices, mounting an aggressive pushback against the film."

"The company continued its counterattack with a complaint delivered ... to the Labor Department. It accuses the official examining an orca's 2010 fatal attack on a SeaWorld trainer of ethical violations, including leaking confidential documents to the makers of Blackfish."

Credit-card rivals Visa and MasterCard said Friday they have formed an industry-wide group aimed at improving payment security in the wake of a number of breaches that compromised customers' data.

"The recent high-profile breaches have served as a catalyst for much needed collaboration between the retail and financial services industry on the issue of payment security," Visa President Ryan McInerney said in the statement.

According to Reuters:

"The new group, which will include banks, credit unions, retailers and industry trade groups, will initially focus on the adoption of the safer 'EMV' chip technology in the United States, MasterCard and Visa said on Friday."

"EMV chip technology, already used in Europe and Asia, stores information on computer chips rather than on traditional magnetic strips. EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, the companies that launched the technology."

Being North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's deputy can be bad for your health, as the sudden execution last year of the young dictator's right-hand man has conclusively proven.

So, when Choe Ryong Hae, the senior Pyongyang official assumed to have stepped into the role did not show up for several public events starting last month, speculation was rife that he'd met a similar fate as his predecessor, Kim's uncle, Jang Song Thaek.

Jang and Choe had reportedly been hand-picked by Kim Jong Un's father, the late Kim Jong Il, to ease his son's transition to power.

On Tuesday, there were reports that South Korea was investigating the possibility that the 31-year-old Kim had ordered Choe's removal. The Week reported:

"There is growing speculation that the regime's second most powerful man, Choe Ryong-hae, has been imprisoned and is undergoing interrogation under orders from the young dictator."

"For the past month, Choe has failed to appear at a string of public events where he would normally be standing close to Kim, reports The Times. It is thought the pair might have clashed over the way Choe was running various state-owned businesses."

While watching the turmoil in Ukraine unfold, you may feel as though it has little to do with the United States, but the conflict is stirring a contentious debate in Europe over a topic familiar to many Americans: fracking.

Much of the continent depends on Russian natural gas that flows through pipelines in Ukraine. European countries are asking themselves whether to follow the U.S. example and drill for shale gas.

In Lancashire in northern England, local anti-fracking groups had been campaigning against shale gas long before the discord in Ukraine made headlines, distributing leaflets and holding public meetings. With several shale gas wells planned for this and other counties, Britain has become a flashpoint for fracking, or hydraulic fracturing — the controversial method of pumping water and chemicals deep into shale deposits to release natural gas. Local resident Anne Fielding is determined to stop them.

"People don't know what's going to happen," Fielding says. "They don't know about the level of pollution and a lot of our information that's come from America has been really frightening."

Many Europeans regard the U.S. boom in shale gas with trepidation. While France and Bulgaria have even banned fracking, others look at the U.S. with envy, says Julian Lee of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London.

Planet Money

Quick Reminder: Russia Is A Petro State

As we told you last week in our Bitcoin Explainer For Those Who Don't Care About Bitcoin, the elusive founder of the crypto-currency goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. He/she/they released code and concept in 2008 but disappeared from cyberspace in 2011, when he/she/they stopped responding to emails from Bitcoin's key developers.

So who is Satoshi Nakamoto? That riddle has all the right elements of a mystery novel — intrigue, money, a dash of conspiracy — and it's no wonder that Reddit, tech blogs and mainstream media outlets alike have been speculating for years.

But Thursday, Newsweek's Leah McGrath Goodman said she finally found the answer.

Newsweek's first print magazine cover since January 2013, when the publication announced it would discontinue its physical magazine, shows a dark figure in a suit, with glasses made out of the Bitcoin symbol. "Bitcoin's Face," it announces. "The Mystery Man Behind The Crypto-Currency."

But like the rest of Bitcoin's rocky existence, this too has a controversy.

1. Newsweek says the mystery man is — wait for it — Satoshi Nakamoto.

Yes, the name that everyone thought was fake is actually real, Goodman says. She reports that he is a 64-year-old Japanese-American man living in Southern California, whose family says he's distrustful of government, fearful of the media, brilliant and "an asshole." Satoshi is his birth name, but he goes by Dorian, Goodman reports.

It should be noted that the research methods leading to this conclusion are by no means scientific. Goodman only followed the trail of people named Satoshi Nakamoto and didn't look into the other suspects. It's a bit of a circular argument — if you only investigate people with one name, all the people you investigate will have that name.

So either this report is a self-fulfilling prophecy, or it's either totally brilliant, as one Redditor said Thursday on the site's Bitcoin subreddit:

So you're telling me that the inventor of a novel piece of computer science, who wrote the code for bitcoin, and goes by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto...

...is actually a software engineer with a strong background in mathematics who has lived and worked in the tech industry in the US, and is called Satoshi Nakamoto.

How on Earth did anyone not figure this out already? Was everyone trying to find a conspiracy?

One of Moammar Gadhafi's sons has arrived in the Libyan capital for the first time since the 2011 revolution that toppled his father after Niger, where he'd long been under house arrest, finally agreed to extradite him.

Saadi Gadhafi, 40 — the former head of Libya's soccer federation who was notorious for a playboy lifestyle during his father's regime — fled to Niger after his father was deposed and summarily executed three years ago.

"The Libyan government received today Saadi Gadhafi and he arrived in Tripoli," the Libyan government said in a statement early on Thursday.

Saadi is one of the Libyan leader's seven sons and, like most ex-regime officials, is wanted in connection with crackdowns on anti-government protesters in the run-up to his father's ouster.

Al-Jazeera reports that Niger had previously refused to turn over Saadi, who fled there in September 2011 as his father's forces were overrun. Reuters says that Libyan authorities believe he used Niger as a base for fomenting unrest in southern Libya after his father's downfall.

Interpol in 2011 issued a 'red notice' calling for Saadi's arrest and extradition, and Al-Jazeera reports that "In December 2011, Mexican authorities foiled a plot to smuggle Saadi from Niger into Mexico."

Reuters says that Saadi is the first of Gadhafi's son's to face trial in Libya and that his better-known brother, Saif al-Islam, once viewed as the regime's heir, has been held captive by fighters in western Libya "who refuse to hand him over to a government they deem too weak to secure and try him."

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual gathering of conservatives which is part pep rally, part trade show, part revival meeting and part political cattle call, rolls into Washington this week.

As the 2014 version gets underway, one of the major questions hanging over the event is this: how much juice does the Tea Party still have?

Recent months haven't seen the kind of hard-right insurgent victories that rocked the conservative establishment two years ago. The Tea Party's preferred candidates didn't come close to running the table in the Texas Republican primary Tuesday. And since the end of last year's partial government shutdown, a dismissive Speaker John Boehner has seemingly found ways to make end runs around Tea Party forces in his House Republican conference.

So journalists and political pros will be looking to CPAC for further signs of Tea Party weakening — or rejuvenation.

This year's conference will also provide another opportunity for likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates to drop their best applause lines on the gathered conservatives as their supporters try to orchestrate a straw poll win for their candidate.

While Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida will be popular figures at CPAC, there will also be keen interest in the reception accorded New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Until rather recently, many conservatives viewed Christie with suspicion because, among other things, he spoke too appreciatively of President Obama's response to Superstorm Sandy right before the 2012 election.

But ever since the George Washington Bridge scandal broke, damaging Christie's presidential prospects, many conservatives have rallied around him. It will be watching to see if that reaction continues at CPAC.

Another CPAC dynamic worth keeping an eye on: the divide between social conservatives and libertarians. CPAC even has a Friday session devoted to that relationship titled: "Can Libertarians and Social Conservatives Ever Get Along?"

The answer to that question is more consequential than ever given the Rand Paul's ascendancy in the party and his frequent mention as a strong contender for the 2016 GOP nomination.

Along the same social conservative-libertarian fault lines will be a Thursday session on legalized marijuana featuring Mary Katherine Ham, editor at large, for HotAir.com, who favors legalization, and Janak Joshi, a Colorado state representative who's opposed. That one could get lively.

Of course, much of CPAC's appeal is rooted in the appearances by some of the brightest stars in the conservative firmament.

Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Ann Coulter are among the conservative celebrities who can be counted on to stir excitement and, perhaps, some intentional controversy as they vie to deliver the most memorable attack lines against President Obama and the left.

Another twist was added to the already complicated and confusing crisis in Ukraine when Crimea's parliament voted Thursday to join the Russian Federation and set a public referendum on that issue for March 16.

According to The Guardian, it isn't clear what the parliament's vote actually means, and "how this works alongside the referendum. ... Also unclear is what Russia's answer will be to a referendum vote — is Moscow now pushing ahead for full annexation or is this a plot to make some eventual de facto independent state solution look like a compromise?"

In what might be a signal of how Russia will react, NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Moscow that lawmakers there are preparing a bill that would simplify the addition of new territories to Russia.

Reuters adds that "Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine, including the Crimean parliament's appeal to let the region join Russia, at a meeting of his Security Council on Thursday, RIA news agency quoted his spokesman as saying."

In Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, Interim Economy Minister Pavlo Sheremeta said his nation's newly installed central government believes it would be unconstitutional for Crimea, an autonomous republic within Ukraine, to seek to split off and join the Russian Federation.

Crimean lawmakers had said last week that they hoped to hold a referendum on May 25 about whether to seek even more autonomy for the region. Later, they moved the date up to March 30. Now, they're seeking a vote in just 10 days and appear to be seeing it as a question over whether to confirm their decision about joining Russia, The Guardian's Shawn Walker reports.

As Reuters adds, "the sudden acceleration of moves to formally bring the Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and has effectively been seized by Russian forces, under Moscow's rule came as European Union leaders gathered for an emergency summit to seek ways to pressure Russia to back down and accept mediation."

Crimea has been the focus of attention for more than a week now as the ripple effects of the protests that led to last month's ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych have spread.

Military units, which Putin insists are local "self-defense forces" but witnesses and reporters say are Russian troops, have seized key locations across the Crimean Peninsula and surrounded Ukrainian military bases. Putin says Russia needs to protect the ethnic Russians in Crimea, who make up a majority of the population there. So far, no shots have been exchanged. For the most part, Ukrainian forces have stayed on their bases.

Secretary of State John Kerry and other western diplomats have been pressing Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to accept a diplomatic solution to the crisis — most likely involving foreign monitors on the ground in Crimea. Kerry met with Lavrov in Paris on Wednesday and they are expected to talk again today in Rome on the sidelines of a conference about Libya.

Meanwhile, European Union officials are huddling in Brussels today for an emergency meeting about the situation in Ukraine. On Wednesday, the EU offered the new leaders in Ukraine a $15 billion package of loans and grants to shore up that nation's crippled economy.

Summing up the history and importance of Crimea to Russia and Ukraine isn't possible in just a few sentences, of course. The Parallels blog, though, has published several posts that contain considerable context:

— Crimea: 3 Things To Know About Ukraine's Latest Hot Spot

— Crimea: A Gift To Ukraine Becomes A Political Flash Point

— Why Ukraine Is Such A Big Deal For Russia

We've previously summed up what set off months of protest in Kiev and ultimately led to Yanukovych's dismissal by his nation's parliament last month:

"The protests were sparked in part by the president's rejection of a pending trade treaty with the European Union and his embrace of more aid from Russia. Protesters were also drawn into the streets to demonstrate against government corruption."

It's been decades since the advertising industry recognized the need to woo Hispanic consumers. Big companies saw the market potential and sank millions of dollars into ads. The most basic dos and don'ts of marketing to Latinos in the United States have been understood for years.

So when officials started thinking about how to persuade the state's Spanish speakers, who make up nearly 30 percent of California's population, to enroll in health care plans, they should have had a blueprint of what to do. Instead, they made a series of mistakes.

For example, one thing health policy experts love about Obamacare is that no one can be denied coverage for a pre-existing health condition. Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, made this a selling point in almost all its Spanish ads. But that doesn't resonate with Latinos. Many have never had insurance, never considered it.

Bessie Ramirez is with the Los Angeles-based Santiago Solutions Group, a Hispanic market research firm that has consulted for large health-care clients like HealthNet, Cigna and Blue Cross.

She says another problem is that all the early TV ads end with a web address for Covered California in Spanish — no phone number or physical address. She says that completely misses how Hispanics like to shop, especially for a complicated product like health insurance.

Across the country, communities stranded in food and retail deserts are asking how they can enjoy the bounty afforded to other urban centers. One Washington, D.C., community thinks it might have an answer.

Just a 10-minute drive south of the U.S. Capitol, across the Anacostia River, sits Congress Heights. The Southeast D.C. neighborhood is less than 2 miles long and home to more than 8,000 people, many in single-family houses. But if you're looking for a sit-down meal, options are scarce.

Up Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, just outside the neighborhood's boundaries, Georgena's has long been the block's only bar and restaurant. It's a former strip club that now serves a gracious soul food menu. Beyond that, your options are the liquor mart, IHOP and a couple of carryout places.

It's a largely low-income area, but it's also a stable one, with century-old churches, a nearby military base and pockets of a professional class.

For potential businesses, "low income" can seem an insurmountable hurdle.

Still, the city's planning office thinks this busy corridor has potential. It's been working with an urban planning firm to help communities take concrete and data-based steps to attract business.

The Safety Feedback Loop

The potential here is obvious for some Congress Heights residents, including business owner Donny Seto, who's lived in the area for six years. He opened his own cellphone store about a year ago.

"With this particular store, I have a larger variety of merchandise, including D.C. Lottery scratch tickets, hats, gloves," he says. "As long as you cater to the needs of the customers and you listen to what the customers say and what they want and you bring it into the stores, yes, they will buy it. And they will patronize your business."

“ "Everyone has bulletproof glass. Why? What are you so afraid of?"

Russian President Vladimir Putin is among the 278 nominees for a 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, according to Peace Research Institute Oslo, an institution that closely tracks the Nobel committee's work.

Putin, who of course is now at the center of one of the world's most dangerous situations — the crisis in Ukraine — has been "nominated by the International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation Among the Nations of the World and backed by Russian MP Iosif Kobzon, for his averting of an air strike on Syria after the chemical gas attacks in August 2013," PRIO reports.

According to the Nobel committee, the 278 nominations for this year's prize "is the highest number of candidates ever. The previous record was 259 from 2013."

We've reported before that the so-called NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, is among the nominees.

Among others who PRIO says it has confirmed are on the list:

— Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen who was shot by the Taliban because of her outspoken support for the education of girls. She was a nominee last year as well.

— Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning. The Army private is now serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking the largest amount of classified information in U.S. history.

Yousafzai and Snowden have made it on to PRIO Director Kristian Berg Harpviken's shortlist of likely Peace Prize honorees. The other three people he puts on that list:

— Pope Francis. Harpviken points out that in the year since he became pope, Francis "has brought attention to the fate of the poor, and the need for a new approach to development and economic redistribution. ... Pope Francis has also instilled new hope for reform of the Catholic Church. He has himself adopted a more modest appearance than his predecessors, uses social media extensively, and signals accessibility for the common man and woman."

— Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper that PRIO notes was "set up in 1993 at the initiative of Mikhail Gorbachev, who devoted part of his Nobel Peace Prize money for the purpose. The newspaper has since experienced the killings of several of its journalists. Its website has been exposed to numerous cyberattacks."

— Denis Mukwege, a doctor who for more than a decade "has given medical treatment to survivors of sexual violence. In 1999 he founded the Panzi Hospital in Bakuvu, DR Congo."

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate will be announced in October.

Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula brought with it threats of U.S. sanctions, but Europe, while condemning President Vladimir Putin's actions, has been more circumspect. Part of the reason: Europe's dependence on Russian money and energy.

"It is a matter of simple economics," Alex Melikishvili, senior Europe/CIS Analyst at IHS Country Risk, said in an email.

He noted that the EU is Russia's main trade partner; bilateral trade is in hundreds of billion of dollars annually, in contrast with much lower U.S.-Russia trade (see chart).

"As a result, forging a coordinated response without harming vital economic interests of EU states who are also, to a large extent, dependent on Russian gas supplies ... is a complicated and time-consuming effort," he said.

Here's the potential impact that sanctions could have on different European countries and Russia:

Think of the budget plan released Tuesday by President Obama as a magic wand. If he could wave it and make every line come true, how would the U.S. economy look?

Like this:

Wealthier Americans would be paying more in taxes, while poorer ones would be getting new tax credits. More roads would be under construction and scientists would be receiving more funding. Smokers would be paying more in taxes to allow four-year-olds to attend preschool.

Obama's focus is on job creation, job training and education — and he would pay for changes by imposing higher taxes.

But Republicans don't see a magic wand here. They view the White House budget as a club that will beat down the economy with heavier taxes.

The Obama plan "would demand that families pay more so Washington can spend more," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Tuesday in a statement. "Republicans believe in a different vision."

On Monday, Ryan released a report suggesting the government eliminate funding for many poverty programs he says have failed.

So are the two economic visions really so different? How?

Alan Viard, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former staff economist for the George W. Bush administration, said he does see immense differences between Obama's fiscal plans and Ryan's.

In effect, Obama would tweak the budget to try to shrink income disparities. But Ryan, he says, would "radically" change the budget by instituting structural changes in taxes, anti-poverty programs and entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

In that sense, the Obama's plan could be seen as a less dramatic approach, in that it would stay closer to the country's existing path, Viard says. "There's nothing 'socialist' in Obama's budget. It's a commitment to the status quo, with minor changes that he would consider improvements.

"It tilts the economy more in the direction of taxing the rich" to help the poor in the short term, he adds, but without changing big entitlement programs for the long term.

Obama Budget: A Blueprint With Little Chance Of Passage

Think of the budget plan released Tuesday by President Obama as a magic wand. If he could wave it and make every line come true, how would the U.S. economy look?

Like this:

Wealthier Americans would be paying more in taxes, while poorer ones would be getting new tax credits. More roads would be under construction and scientists would be receiving more funding. Smokers would be paying more in taxes to allow four-year-olds to attend preschool.

Obama's focus is on job creation, job training and education — and he would pay for changes by imposing higher taxes.

But Republicans don't see a magic wand here. They view the White House budget as a club that will beat down the economy with heavier taxes.

The Obama plan "would demand that families pay more so Washington can spend more," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Tuesday in a statement. "Republicans believe in a different vision."

On Monday, Ryan released a report suggesting the government eliminate funding for many poverty programs he says have failed.

So are the two economic visions really so different? How?

Alan Viard, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former staff economist for the George W. Bush administration, said he does see immense differences between Obama's fiscal plans and Ryan's.

In effect, Obama would tweak the budget to try to shrink income disparities. But Ryan, he says, would "radically" change the budget by instituting structural changes in taxes, anti-poverty programs and entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

In that sense, the Obama's plan could be seen as a less dramatic approach, in that it would stay closer to the country's existing path, Viard says. "There's nothing 'socialist' in Obama's budget. It's a commitment to the status quo, with minor changes that he would consider improvements.

"It tilts the economy more in the direction of taxing the rich" to help the poor in the short term, he adds, but without changing big entitlement programs for the long term.

Obama Budget: A Blueprint With Little Chance Of Passage

You're probably used to rounding up the bill on your taxi ride or dropping a buck in a jar at the coffee shop. Now, new high tech ways to pay nudge you to tip more generously and more often.

Molly Moon Neitzel has seen this firsthand at her Seattle, Wash., shop, Molly Moon Homemade Ice Cream. Last year, she installed a type of iPad-based cash register made by Square at one of her six shops. When customers pay with a credit card for their scoop, the cashier flips the iPad around so customers can swipe their cards. Before they can sign their names, they're presented with a screen that suggests tip amounts. The options at Molly Moon are $1, $2, $3 or no tip.

You physically have to hit "no tip" — and feel like a jerk — if you want to be stingy. The system is smart. If you buy only one cone, it will give you whole dollar tip suggestions. However, if you buy scoops for, say, an entire little league team, Square suggests percentage tips. This might sound insignificant, but Neitzel says her staff at the store using Square noticed they were quickly making more in tips — 50 percent more.

"People were wanting to trade their shifts in other neighborhoods and come work in this shop only," Neitzel says.

Then, one day, Square updated its software. With the change, the tip options were on the same screen as the signature. It was easier to ignore. No longer did you have to choose a tip to get to the next screen. Neitzel's employees started to "freak out," she says. That small tweak meant they were making a lot less money.

A couple of days later, Square restored the old design and avoided a riot.

Planet Money

Why We Tip

A judge held an unusual hearing in New Jersey Tuesday: a lawsuit brought by an 18-year-old who says her parents kicked her out of their house. Rachel Canning is seeking to force her parents to give her financial support and money for college, in addition to pay for tuition at her private-school.

Superior Court Family Division Judge Peter Bogaard, who heard the case in Morristown, N.J., Tuesday afternoon, denied Rachel Canning's requests in what's seen as the first round of hearings in the case.

"All requests by plaintiff for emergent relief at this point are denied," tweeted Michael Izzo of the Daily Record, which was apparently the first news outlet to report the news of the lawsuit.

The judge set a date of April 22 for a hearing to consider other issues in the case, such as Rachel Canning's legal status, the Daily Record reports.

In discussing the case after nearly two hours of testimony, the judge cited an email from Rachel to her parents in which she said, "I'm my biggest enemy... And do realize that a change has to be made," Izzo says.

Bogaard also "noted that Rachel Canning's behavior over the past year has been in question," reports CBS 2 TV: "one or two school suspensions, drinking, losing her captaincy on the cheerleading squad and being kicked out of the campus ministry."

The news station says the judge also told the Cannings that they should have tried to get help for their daughter instead of cutting her off.

Bogaard said the question of public policy must be considered, Izzo reported, as the case might set a precedent in which children can flout their parents' rules and then demand money from them.

Court documents filed by Rachel Canning alleged that her parents abandoned her. But her lawsuit stopped short of seeking full emancipation from them – if that connection is removed, her parents would cease to have an obligation toward their daughter.

"We're being sued by our child," Sean Canning told CBS 2's Christine Sloan Monday. "I'm dumbfounded. So is my wife, so are my other daughters."

Rachel Canning is a senior at Morris Catholic High School who is on the honor roll and the cheerleading squad; she plays lacrosse and has a $20,000 scholarship from the University of Vermont, according to multiple reports.

Since leaving her parents' home, Canning has been living with a friend whose father helped her file suit, as The Asbury Park Press reports:

"Since the alleged "abandonment" by her parents, Rachel has been living in Rockaway Township with the family of her best friend and fellow student Jaime Inglesino, whose father is attorney and former Morris County Freeholder John Inglesino. Inglesino is funding the lawsuit and hired attorney Helfand, who included in the lawsuit a request that the parents pay their daughter's legal fees that so far total $12,597."

In late December, Canning's parents' attorney wrote a letter stating that the parents would continue to pay for Rachel's health insurance and saying she is entitled to money from a college fund they created, reports the The Star-Ledger.

"I know Rachel is a) a good kid, b) an incredibly rebellious teen, and she's getting some terrible information," Sean Canning told CBS 2.

He told the TV station that his daughter left home in November. The Canning household isn't a strict one, he said, noting that curfew is often after 11 p.m. Several local media outlets have reported that the Cannings did not approve of their daughter's boyfriend, whom the Daily Record has identified as a fellow senior at Morris Catholic.

Tuesday afternoon, Sean and Elizabeth Canning and heir daughter came to court to discuss her lawsuit against them. They sat "at opposite ends" of the same table, Fox News' Rick Leventhal tweets. "All look miserable."

For today's hearing, the parents were "required to produce information about their incomes, including their 2011 and 2012 tax returns and their last three pay stubs," reports the The Star-Ledger.

The newspaper adds that Sean Canning currently works as a business administrator for the Township of Mount Olive; Elizabeth Canning is a legal secretary.

An intense discussion of the case is underway at the Asbury Park Press, where the top-rated comment came from a woman warning Rachel Canning that she was putting her future at risk. When people learn about her past, reader Emily Ruman warned, "they will most likely put on you on their 'she was crazy then, she is probably still crazy' list of people that they don't hire, date, befriend or otherwise associate with."

Another comment reiterated a time-honored rule: "If you don't like the rules here, move out."

As expected, President Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $3.9 trillion budget plan for fiscal 2015 that his number crunchers say would produce a $564 billion deficit.

But as NPR's Tamara Keith said on Morning Edition, Obama's budget isn't likely to have much of an impact on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers last December reached a two-year spending deal. It's also an election year, so they aren't going to be eager to reopen budget talks. And as The Associated Press points out, "many of the proposals were in earlier budgets and were ignored."

Still, Tamara added, presidents are required to draw up budgets and they use them to frame their visions for the nation.

The Wall Street Journal says the blueprint is "peppered with new taxes on upper-income Americans and businesses, plus numerous spending initiatives aimed at bolstering education, research and low-income work programs."

Politico says it would "raise taxes on the rich, expand tax credits for the poor and middle class — though as of now, it merely serves as a White House wish list."

The Hill writes that "the central elements of the proposal are $56 billion in new stimulus spending above the discretionary budget cap in place for next year, $302 billion in infrastructure spending over four years and a series of tax breaks for lower-income workers. The initiatives would be fully paid for by increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals."

Since peaking at just over 10 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2009, federal deficits have been shrinking in comparison to the size of the economy — a measure economists say is useful when gauging the effect of all that red ink. At $564 billion, the deficit would be about 3 percent of GDP.

Long ago, McDonald's chose to honor St. Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland with its Shamrock Shake, made with real snake. It was known for its subtle flavor and powerful aphrodisiac qualities. While the recipe has changed slightly over the years, the powerful aphrodisiac qualities remain.

Peter: Sucking this up through the straw is pretty hard work just to get something that tastes like toothpaste.

Miles: Shamrocks are good luck, but I think the woman who rang us up took it too far when she said, "You're gonna need it."

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Watching Wes Anderson's films can often feel like a tumble down a rabbit hole. With the opening credits comes entry into a world that's both weird and wonderful. The writer and director of movies like Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom has long had a point of view that is completely original — even dating back to the fifth grade, when he and a friend dramatized a Kenny Rogers album.

"We built quite a nice set," Anderson recalls. "We just performed the whole album of The Gambler with puppets playing instruments."

His quirky sensibility wasn't always appreciated, though. "The thing that stuck in my mind was that it was a real flop, which is kind of a rare thing in fifth grade — to be panned."

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Chinese authorities are trying to contain a growing problem — graffiti written on and carved into the stones of the Great Wall of China — by giving tourists a designated section on which they can leave their marks.

China News Service reports that "Mutianyu, a famous section of the Great Wall of China, has established a specified area for graffiti to better protect the ancient heritage item, the governing authority said on Sunday."

Most of the graffiti, the news service says, is in English.

The Guardian adds that "the graffiti section will be set up at one of the fighting towers that has become a common place for tourists to scrawl on the walls. Authorities have also aired the idea of setting up an electronic touch-screen graffiti wall in the future."

According to the BBC, "Mutianyu, 40 miles north-east of the capital Beijing, is one of the most popular and best-preserved parts of the Great Wall." It's one of many sections of the wall that have undergone extensive renovations in recent decades.

Authorities can't make the case, of course, that Chinese citizens never leave behind graffiti when they travel the world. Last May, as we reported, a 15-year-old boy from China used what appeared to be chalk to write a message on Egypt's 3,500-year-old Luxor Temple. As Eyder said, it was a rather mundane marking: "Ding Jinhao was here."

What's in a name? It's an age-old question Juliet once asked Romeo in Shakespeare's famed play.

Today, it's a serious question between the U.S. and the European Union, which has said it wants U.S. food makers to stop using European names.

But depending on what food you're talking about, a name could be a lot, says Kyle Cherek, the producer and host of a TV show called Wisconsin Foodie.

Cherek argues that certain products are so unique that only one country or region should be allowed to lay claim. So, for example, he says only onions from Vidalia, Ga., should be called American Vidalia, and Lambic beer absolutely has to come from a specific valley in Belgium.

"Roquefort, of course, has to come from that region" of France, he adds, because there's a distinctive fungus that gives the cheese its flavor.

But not everything fits into that category. Take, for instance, cheddar cheese — which is big business in Wisconsin.

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The Chinese government has blamed the deadly stabbing attack in southwest China on Muslim separatists from the country's northwest, but it has yet to provide hard evidence for the claim.

Police said they have captured the final three suspects in a knife attack that killed 29 people and left more than a 140 injured in the city of Kunming on Saturday, according to the state-run New China News Service.

Police say they shot and killed four suspects and captured an injured female suspect at the Kunming Rail Station, the scene of the massacre. China's Ministry of Public Security said the eight-member gang was led by a man named Abdurehim Kurban.

Xia Fanchao arrived at the station in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province around 9 p.m. Saturday. He planned to catch a train toward the east coast, where he'd lined up a job installing elevators.

As the skinny 18-year-old stood outside the entrance, he noticed something strange.

"I saw a man carrying a bag, which he dropped on the floor of the square," said Xia, who spoke from his bed at the Kunming No. 1 People's Hospital. "Quite a few people rushed to the bag and unzipped it. Each took out a knife and then split up among the crowd and started to slash people."

Xia says the assailants, all clad in black, moved about the square without speaking. They slashed at people as though "they were chopping firewood." Xia said some of the knives were 20 inches long.

A woman in a long black dress and a black veil ran toward Xia.

"She lifted the knife and was about to slash me," he said. "I dodged and it cut my neck. It felt like I was being electrocuted."

Some of the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies have dramatically reduced payments to health professionals for promotional speeches amid heightened public scrutiny of such spending, a ProPublica analysis shows.

Eli Lilly & Co.'s payments to speakers dropped by 55 percent, from $47.9 million in 2011 to $21.6 million in 2012.

Pfizer's speaking payments fell 62 percent over the same period, from nearly $22 million to $8.3 million.

And Novartis, the largest drugmaker in the U.S. as measured by 2012 sales, spent 40 percent less on speakers that year than it did between October 2010 and September 2011, reducing payments from $24.8 million to $14.8 million.

The sharp declines coincide with increased attention from regulators, academic institutions and the public to pharmaceutical company marketing practices. A number of companies have settled federal whistleblower lawsuits in recent years that accused them of improperly marketing their drugs.

In addition, the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, a part of the 2010 health reform law, will soon require all pharmaceutical and medical device companies to publicly report payments to physicians. The first disclosures required under the act are expected in September and will cover the period of August to December 2013.

Within the industry, some companies are reevaluating the role of physician speakers in their marketing repertoire. GlaxoSmithKline announced in December that it would stop paying doctors to speak on behalf of its drugs. Its speaking tab plummeted from $24 million in 2011 to $9.3 million in 2012.

What's in a name? It's an age-old question Juliet once asked Romeo in Shakespeare's famed play.

Today, it's a serious question between the U.S. and the European Union, which has said it wants U.S. food makers to stop using European names.

But depending on what food you're talking about, a name could be a lot, says Kyle Cherek, the producer and host of a TV show called Wisconsin Foodie.

Cherek argues that certain products are so unique that only one country or region should be allowed to lay claim. So, for example, he says only onions from Vidalia, Ga., should be called American Vidalia, and Lambic beer absolutely has to come from a specific valley in Belgium.

"Roquefort, of course, has to come from that region" of France, he adds, because there's a distinctive fungus that gives the cheese its flavor.

But not everything fits into that category. Take, for instance, cheddar cheese — which is big business in Wisconsin.

Related NPR Stories

15-Year-Old Cheddar Best Enjoyed With Wine, Beer Dec. 7, 2009

Sunday night's Oscars will include a Best Picture race that's apparently narrowed to three films: 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, and maybe American Hustle. Matthew McConaughey for Best Actor? Maybe. Or Leonardo DiCaprio? What about Cate Blanchett, a seeming shoo-in despite Meryl Streep delivering, in August Osage County, the biggest, chewiest, most Oscar-friendly performance of all time?

Sure, some of these things are still mysteries. But that doesn't mean we don't know anything about the winners. We actually know a lot about the winners. Contrary to the myth of a wide-open field, by the time you get to Oscar night, the focus has narrowed, relative to the larger world of filmmaking, until it is the size of the head of a pin.

We know, for instance, that the Best Director winner will be a man. The Best Adapted and Best Original Screenplay winners will be either men or teams that include both women and men. Men will win the Oscars for Best Score, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Design, Visual Effects, and Cinematography. Most of those men, in all likelihood, will be white.

If the chosen Best Picture is a story about a woman (Gravity, Philomena), it will be the story of a woman as written by a group of men.

Women, on the other hand are locks only in the categories of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

We know from reading Oscar ballots explained by anonymous voters to The Hollywood Reporter that Lupita Nyong'o is getting at least one vote from an Oscar-winning screenwriter who hasn't bothered to learn her name, one from a member of the public relations branch who appreciates how she behaves herself at parties, and another from a member of the sound branch who also hasn't learned her name (or Chiwetel Ejiofor's) and who thinks Philomena was called Willamina.

We know from reading those same ballots that of the two (out of the five THR spoke to) who referred to the transgender woman Jordan Leto played in Dallas Buyers Club as a "transvestite," only one of them is voting for him. (It's the one who also referred to that same woman as a "take-charge guy," not the one who called her a "drag queen.")

If you were to play the percentages and not just the certainties, you'd know even more. And honestly, if 12 Years A Slave weren't around, you'd have several more categories entirely made up of white people.

The point of all of this is not "don't watch the Oscars." Not at all. The point is to watch the Oscars as frivolous piece of television full of people in beautiful clothes who gamble in the moment on what to say and who sometimes fall down or move you unexpectedly. Most of the people who will be honored are very, very good at what they do. It takes nothing away from them to point out that what we are looking at on Oscar night is not the world of film, but the world of well-funded, pre-sorted, mostly male-driven, mostly white-driven, mostly English-language, mostly American-made movies judged by people who don't always know the names of the people they're voting for and are trying to judge Jared Leto's performance (and the appropriateness of his casting, in all honesty) without knowing enough not to call his character a "transvestite."

The Oscars are fun, and sometimes funny, and diverting, and I (@nprmonkeysee) will be live-tweeting the heck out of them with Bob Mondello (@Bob_Mondello) and some other folks at #NPROscars, and I hope you will, too. But they're a lot easier to take if you keep in mind the folly at the core of them and take them as an artifact of where Hollywood is and where it sees itself.

After all, one of those anonymous voters said he was voting for Philomena "because it's the kind of film that I approve of." I could not have said it better myself. The Oscars: Given By Hollywood To The Kinds Of Films It Approves Of.

For real estate agents, March Madness has begun.

The rush is on to throw out clutter, paint walls and clean carpets. Historic data show the peak time for selling homes is April through July, and that means this is the month for spring cleaning.

"Freshen up the landscape and add that mulch now," Dallas Realtor Jeff Duffey recommended in a phone interview. "Get your over-sized furniture out of the small bedroom and put more lamps in that dark room."

The economy has a lot riding on how well people obey Duffey's marching orders.

Economists say a strong housing sector can drive job creation, as well as boost personal wealth and consumer confidence. Here are a few reasons for optimism, based on reports issued in last week:

Sales of new single-family homes unexpectedly shot up nearly 10 percent in January to a five-and-a-half year high, according to Commerce Department data.

The Pending Home Sales Index, compiled by the National Association of Realtors, showed that contract signings ticked slightly higher in January.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, which measures how confident people are about the economy, managed to inch up 0.4 points in February.

But while those are good signs, Realtors' chief economist Lawrence Yun is still being restrained in his assessment of this year's prospects. Because many builders got knocked out of business during the recession, new home construction has been subdued in recent years, creating inventory shortages and price jumps. Yun says that has been a problem, along with poor weather conditions in much of the country this winter.

"Ongoing disruptive weather patterns in much of the U.S. inhibited home shopping," Yun said in a statement. "Limited inventory also is playing a role, especially in the West, while credit remains tight and affordability isn't as favorable as it was a year ago."

This year, existing-home sales are projected to hit just over 5 million, which would be slightly below last year's level. Yun forecasts that the national median existing-home price will increase by between 5 percent and 6 percent this year.

But a major housing report just completed for the Conference Board — a business group — is less optimistic about home prices. It forecasts "existing single-family median home prices to grow at an average annual rate of 2.1 percent between 2015 and 2018."

The sooner the housing market returns to a healthy and stable state, the better for the economy, analysts say. For one thing, a strong real estate market can create jobs for home builders and remodelers. In January, the residential construction sector added 13,000 jobs.

Better home sales can also improve the prospects of all types of job seekers, according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an employment consulting firm.

During the worst of the housing bust, "many job seekers were stuck in homes with market values well below what was owed on the mortgage," Challenger said. "In 2013, we saw a rebound in home buying and home prices. Fewer mortgages are 'under water,' which is making it easier to move."

PNC Financial Services' chief economist Stuart Hoffman wrote an assessment, ticking off reasons why the housing sector should hold up in 2014.

"The economy is adding jobs and incomes are growing, making households more confident," Hoffman wrote. "Big gains in stock prices over the past few years have boosted household wealth, and banks are gradually more willing to lend. There is also significant pent-up demand for new homes after potential buyers have put off purchases for years because of concern about the economy."

Realtor Duffey says he is feeling "super optimistic" because he already is seeing "buyers are fighting over homes" amid lean inventories.

Still, he warns that sellers should not become overly confident. Would-be buyers still have the option of renting if they don't like what they see.

"You need to spend $2,000 to $4,000 getting your house ready for the market, no matter what your price range is," he said.

When he meets with potential sellers, they often apologize for the state of their homes. He then delivers a lecture on the importance of spring cleaning. "They have Cheerios on the floor – and I know, that's how people live in real life, but that's not how you sell homes," he said.