Memphis

Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance Publications, says that things are still going to get worse before they improve, and Phelisha Harris, a realtor, sees signs of the damaged housing market everyday in her neighborhood.

Geography, it turns out, is a key determiner in whether low-income children can improve their socio-economic status by the time they become adults. That’s a key finding of a new research report from researchers at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley.

The persistent drought across much of the United States has another casualty, the water in the Mississippi River. One of America’s primary ways for shipping commodities to markets around the world, the low water levels means smaller barges, closed stretches of the river and, eventually, higher prices for all of us.

The United States routinely produces some of the world’s best swimmers. Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Natalie Coughlin are all expected to medal at the Olympics. But a surprising number of Americans don’t know how to swim.

It’ll be two of basketball’s elitest programs going head-to-head Monday night to win the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship: the Kansas Jayhawks and the Kentucky Wildcats. The two programs have more victories than any other NCAA men’s team.