According to his office, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call that Ukraine has to take urgent steps to diffuse the crisis. Ukrainian National should be disarmed, and constitutional reform should begin, the statement says. Kerry, though, had a different message from Moscow, raising concerns that pro-Russian separatists are occupying more buildings, and taking journalists' hostage in the east of Ukraine. The State Department says Kerry urged Russia to persuade those separatists to disarm and stand down, and to tone down its rhetoric. The US is warning Russia it will face more sanctions if it doesn't help to deescalate the crisis. Michele Kelemen NPR News Washington.

 

 

President Obama traveled to Washington State today to be with families of victims of last month's massive mud slide. President conducted an aerial tour of the affected area boarding Marine 1, before heading to a fire house to meet with victim's families, who are stuck together during a tough time.

Over the past month we've seen neighbors and complete strangers donate everything from chainsaws to rain jackets to help with the recovery effort, and we've seen families cook meals for rescue workers, and we've seen volunteers pull 15-hour days, searching through mud up to 70 feet deep.

The landslide that hit in March 22nd northeast of Seattle tore through around 3 dozens of homes and have left at least 41 people dead. Whilst two more victims were found yesterday.

 

 

US Supreme Court has upheld Michigan's ban on race and gender based affirmative actions that were approved by voters 8 years ago. 6-2 majority holding, the voters there then arise to amend the state constitution to ban race and gender conscious university admission policies. Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta has more.

The court said the case is not about whether affirmative action is allowed, but about voter's right to set limits on the admission polices that take race and gender into account. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette defended the amendment.

Today's decision by the United State's Supreme Court, is a victory for the constitution, victory for the voters of Michigan, and victory for the rule of law.

The Supreme Court overruled a lower court decision that Michigan illegally discriminate against minorities and women because, unlike other groups such as alumni donors or athletes, they can only change the admissions policies by once again amending the constitution. At least 3 more states are considering similar amendments. For NPR News I'm Rick Pluta in Lansing Michigan.

 

 

The existing home sales fell last month. The National Association of Realtors, the industry's main trade groups, says that the month's sale previously owned homes fell 2 cents of 1 percent, to a seasonally adjusted 4.5 m.

 

 

On Walls Street today, the Dow was up 65 points to close at 16,514. The NASDAQ in 39 points.

 

 

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Pilots at discount airline Jet Blue by a wide margin have voted to unionize. The Pilot Union is going to join the Airline Pilots Association after a month-long election that saw about 71% of the eligible pilots voting in favor of the move. The vote is the first successful union drive by a group of employees in New York base Jet Blue, and will result in a higher pay and benefits for pilots, with previous unionization efforts by pilot discount airline failed.

 

 

A group of retired astronauts is invoking earth day to attract support for a private effort to detect killer asteroids. NPR's Martin Kaste reports from Seattle.

The B612 foundation is building a space telescope to detect the kind of aerospace rocks that could wipe out a city, or worse. To help raise the necessary $250 m, they recruited Bill Anders, the Apollo 8 astronaut who took one of the most famous photos ever, Earthrise, the image of the earth seen from the moon's orbit.            

Hopefully, the Earthrise picture which did help kick off an environmental movement, can also help people appreciate that our planet needs protection from things reining in.

With enough warning, the asteroid could be nudged out of the collision course with the earth. The foundation plans to launch its telescope in 2018 if can raise enough the money. Martin Kaste NPR News. 

 

 

* have seem like in some parts of the US, the Federal Weather Watcher say, globally this part March is one of the warmest on record. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration announced today this March was the 4th hottest in 135 years. The overall global temperature 1.3 degrees °F warmer than the 20 century average. The US last month was about 1 degree cooler than normal.