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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.

Eric Greitens is running for Roy Blunt's U.S. Senate seat.

Noah Adams talks to Dan Charles, author of the forthcoming book Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food. Yesterday, a Canadian judge ordered a farmer to pay damages to Monsanto because the farmer was growing geneticaly modified crops without Monsanto's permission.

Phillip Davis reports that NASCAR fans are celebrating the Florida legislature's enactment of a law that makes autopsy photos exempt from public records laws unless a judge releases them. Similar efforts are under way in Georgia, North Carolina and other southern states, following a Florida newspaper's effort to obtain autopsy photos of NASCAR champion racer Dale Earnhardt, who died in a crash Feb. 18 at the Daytona 500. The newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel, said it would challenge the new law as unconstitutional.

Noah Adams watches a game in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament with some of the members of the Bishop McNamara High School girl's basketball team -- at the home of their coach. For the team members, the game is instructive as well as entertaining. They see their future hopes and challenges in the game on TV.

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.

In two separate experiments, scientists have repaired injured rodent hearts by transplanting into them stem cells, cells that are capable of developing into many cell types. The stem cells stimulated the development of new blood vessels and muscle tissue in the hearts of mice and rats. While more research needs to be done before the procedure can be tried in humans, NPR's Richard Harris reports that scientists hope that it will someday help people who've had heart attacks.

Robert Siegel talks to Congressman Roy Blunt of Missouri, the chief deputy to the majority Whip, about the campaign finance reform legislations in the House. The House leadership intends to send the campaign finance reform bill to a conference.