State and National News

As part of Tell Me More's series for National Poetry Month, host Michel Martin shares a poetic tweet from writer and artist Heather Feaga from Phoenix, Arizona. Listeners are invited to tweet original poems of 140 characters or less to #TMMPoetry.

Most pitchers in the majors stick to fastballs, curveballs, sliders and change-ups when facing batters at the plate.

But not New York Mets right-hander R.A. Dickey. Dickey is currently the only knuckleball pitcher in a current rotation. At 37, he's also one of the older pitchers in the league and has seen his career — and life — mimic the erratic trajectory of the difficult pitch he throws game after game.

Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has been suspended without pay for five games, effective immediately, as the firestorm continues over his comment to Time magazine last week that "I love Fidel Castro."

Now there's fresh evidence that CT scans to detect early lung cancer belong on the short list of effective cancer screening technologies — at least for people at high risk.

Researchers conclude that spiral CT, which makes 3-D pictures of lungs, could reduce lung cancer deaths by 35 percent at a cost of $19,000 to $26,000 per year of life saved.

Wireless providers have agreed to create a national database of stolen cellphones that it is hoped will make the devices somewhat less tempting to thieves.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and a group of lawmakers and law enforcement officials are set to announce outlines of the plan at 10 a.m. ET.

The key moment in the manhunt for suspects in a murder spree that terrorized African-Americans in Tulsa, Okla., came Saturday morning when a tip was called in to the city's Crime Stoppers hotline, the Tulsa World says.

On this day when a U.N.-brokered cease-fire was supposed to go into effect in Syria, "activists reported military attacks on two towns ... even as the government claimed its military forces have begun pulling out" of some areas, The Associated Press reports.

The BBC says:

The chef at the presidential palace recently revealed that Nicolas Sarkozy has said no to the cheese course after meals. He doesn't drink, so no wine for him either.