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Scott Simon speaks with Howard Bryant of ESPN about basketball's March Madness and baseball's only international presence, the World Baseball Classic.

On a recent day in the Rockaways, a neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., hazmat-suited volunteers far outnumber anyone else on the streets. They are "mucking and gutting" — stripping homes to the studs to remove mold. Many residents are concerned about the health effects of mold exposure, according to community organizer Peter Corless. Mycologist Joan Bennett has been sampling fungi in homes damaged by Sandy to determine which species are present.

The House passed a bill extending the federal government's spending authority through the end of September on Wednesday, while keeping the bottom line cuts required by the sequester that just took effect. Tamara Keith talks to Audie Cornish about what it means in the ongoing battles over federal spending.

Since the 1961 publication of the Third International Dictionary, people have debated the merits of dictionaries that describe language as it is and those that explain how it should be. Today the debate continues, but it doesn't hold the same cultural significance as before, writes Geoff Nunberg.

It's another week of college football and yet another scandal, this time at Oklahoma State, the subject of a five part investigative story by Sports Illustrated involving athletes taking cash from coaches, sex, and drugs. Sportswriter Stefan Fatsis joins Audie Cornish to talk about that and the ultra-hyped big game between Alabama, the defending national champion and Texas A&M, home of the most polarizing player in college football, quarterback Johnny Manziel.

One of the most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill is AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which commands bi-partisan respect on Middle East issues. But on the matter of possible military strikes on Syria, AIPAC is having a rare tough go of it.

The Planet Money team followed the making of a T-shirt, from cotton fields to factories to container ships. Host Rachel Martin talks with Alex Blumberg of Planet Money and Pietra Rivoli, author of The travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy.

On Tuesday, a key part of the Affordable Care Act is going live: People will be able to buy health insurance from new marketplaces in every state. Researchers and wonks will be intensely interested. Most of the rest of us will be clueless.

This week NPR is debuting its newest t-shirt, and it's unlike any other we've had before. Meet Jessica Roush, the artist who designed our new tee as part of the NPR + Threadless design challenge.

Carl reads three news-related limericks: From Coffee Beans to Lima Beans, Fang by Elizabeth Arden, and You Know What They Say About the Size of a Man's Nose.