Mark Memmott

Renewing his push against "trickle-down economics" that he says has failed the nation in the past, President Obama just said the Republican budget plan passed by the House last week is so conservative and so focused on cutting taxes for the rich that it makes the GOP's mid-1990s Contract With America "look like the New Deal."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was released this morning from the Fairfax, Va., hospital where he received a heart transplant on March 24.

NPR's Don Gonyea forwards us this statement from Cheney's office:

As the Census Bureau was reporting earlier this morning about a 1.3 percent gain in orders for manufactured goods in February from the month before, automakers were saying that March was perhaps their best month in almost four years, The Associated Press says:

The hacking scandal that has ripped through Rupert Murdoch's newspapers in the U.K. has now led to son James Murdoch's decision to step down as chairman of the satellite broadcast giant BSkyB.

NPR's David Folkenflik tells our Newscast Desk that:

An inspector general's report about "excessive and wasteful" spending on a 2010 conference in Las Vegas hosted by the federal government's General Services Administration has cost GSA administrator Martha Johnson her job.

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the suspected mastermind behind the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, that left 166 people dead, now has a $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S. State Department's "Rewards for Justice" program.

Six American citizens died in the Mumbai massacre.

Survivors are telling harrowing tales about what happened Monday morning at Oikos University in Oakland when a man who police say once attended the small Christian school allegedly ordered the dozen or so people in a classroom to line up against a wall, drew a handgun and started firing.

Reporting that it has had the video "clarified" by a forensics company, ABC News is now saying that a police surveillance recording of George Zimmerman "shows the neighborhood watch captain with an injury to the back of his head."

Two "powerhouse" programs — Kansas and Kentucky.

Rosters full of potential NBA stars.

All the hype you would expect from an NCAA men's basketball championship.

But, alas, don't be surprised if there aren't as many "silky smooth jumpers" and other great shots as you might expect during tonight's big game, NPR's Mike Pesca reports.

Three things are working against the teams:

"It's constitutional," President Obama declared this afternoon when asked about the 2010 health care overhaul legislation that was the subject of three days' worth of Supreme Court hearings last week.

He's confident a majority of the justices will agree, Obama added. Many Supreme Court watchers are less certain.

The president make those comments in response to a question that came up during a joint news conference at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

The morning TV air wars get serious again Tuesday with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's guest host slot on NBC's The Today Show — opposite former CBS Evening News' anchor Katie Couric's guest slot on ABC's Good Morning America.

In the lead-in to the faceoff, there was some fun on Today today.

During a phone call with Palin, host Matt Lauer wondered "what are you doing to prepare? Are you reading some newspapers?"

The activist group behind the "Kony 2012" movement and Web video that went viral in March says it will release "Kony 2012, Part II" on Tuesday.

There was a 1.1 percent decline in spending on construction in February vs. January, the Census Bureau just reported. But spending was still 5.8 percent above the level of February 2011.

According to the bureau, spending on home construction was unchanged in February from the month before. Public construction spending was down 1.7 percent.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Trayvon Martin Case: Voice Calling For Help Isn't Zimmerman's, Experts Say.

-- Mega Millions Mystery: Who Won?