Though we've seen The Natural many times, we have to confess we didn't know that a real woman shot a real baseball player in 1949 and that their story inspired Bernard Malamud's 1952 book and Robert Redford's 1984 movie.

In March 2003, U.S. troops crossed from Kuwait into Iraq with the goal of toppling dictator Saddam Hussein. Within weeks, the Hussein regime had fallen. The occupation that followed left U.S. combat forces in the country until December 2011. The legacy of the war is still widely debated.

March Madness is officially here. Starting Tuesday, 68 college teams will compete for a spot at the NCAA men's championship on April 8. As millions across the country fill out brackets and enter office pools, this season has left longtime sports columnist Dave Kindred yearning for the good old days.

In a piece in The Washington Post, he argues that college basketball has lost its way.

Americans are abandoning their long-trusted news outlets in high numbers. According to a Pew Research Center report, 31 percent of Americans say they have deserted a particular news outlet because it no longer provides the information they want.

In January 2011, writer Emily Rapp was a happy new mother when she and her husband found themselves in a pediatric ophthalmologist's office with their 9-month-old son, Ronan. They were worried about Ronan's development and had gone to the eye doctor to rule out vision problems as the culprit. Checking Ronan's retinas, the doctor saw "cherry-red spots on the backs of his retinas," Rapp writes in her new memoir, The Still Point of the Turning World. Ronan's diagnosis that day was Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic and degenerative condition that is always fatal. There is no cure.

President Obama announced his choice to be Labor secretary on Monday. It's Tom Perez, a Justice Department civil rights leader — bringing a high-profile Latino to the Cabinet.

The fatal police shooting of teenager Kimani Gray in East Flatbush, Brooklyn led to days of protests and some violence; it also heightened tensions in a community already distrustful of the police. Host Michel Martin discusses the shooting, and its aftermath, with WNYC talk show host Brian Lehrer and community activist Shanduke McPhatter.

Detroit's emergency fiscal manager is tasked with turning around the city's troubled finances. But some residents say they've been robbed of the right to pick their own leaders. Host Michel Martin speaks with Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley, about future of the Motor City.