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NPR's Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow on the Russian president's efforts to tighten Moscow's reins on regional governments. A year after Vladimir Putin's election, he has failed to follow through on his pledge to curb the power of Russia's governors.

A glance at the political news from New Jersey might lead onlookers to think there's a resurgence of corruption in the state. Investigators are looking into allegations against New Jersey's acting governor, Donald Di Francesco. And a list of lower officials -- the Bergen County sheriff, the mayor of Camden, a city engineer in Paterson -- have all made recent headlines with their own scandals. Robert Siegel talks to Daniel Barry, a reporter on the metropolitan desk of the New York Times.

Richard Finan is Chairman of the Ohio Senate Finance Committee. He says crafting a state budget involves a lot of give and take, and it's impossible to make everyone happy.

NPR's Eric Weiner in Jerusalem reports there is no sign of a let-up to the violence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Commentator Marion Winik says today's low unemployment rate (relatively speaking) can mean bad service. Knowing you can always find another job means never having to say "Can I help you?"

NPR's Jack Speer reports stocks moved higher today, but the small rally did nothing to change the overall picture. On the last day of trading in the first quarter, the NASDAQ composite is down about 25 percent on the year. The Dow is down about 9 percent on the year. That's the Dow's worst first quarter performance in more than 40 years.

Robert Siegel talks to sportstwriter Stefan Fatsis of the Wall Street Journal about baseball's opening day on Sunday. The Texas Rangers -- the team President Bush used to own -- play the Toronto Blue Jays in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

NPR's Melissa Block reports on an art exhibition in which all the pieces are made from old typewriters -- Underwoods, Olivettis and IBM Selectrics.

Robert Siegel talks to NPR's Adam Hochberg about officials in North Carolina who said they were testing a pig suspected of having foot-and-mouth disease. But the U.S. Agriculture Department says the tests turned out be negative.

Bob Garfield, co-host of the NPR's On the Media, reports on the world of movie blurbs, those words and phrases extracted from reviews in order to market movies -- even when the review trashes the movie. Brief bursts of apparent gusto from a known critic can be assumed to have been printed out of context. But many reviewers like to see themselves quoted -- even incorrectly.