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The NCAA men's basketball tournament is down to the Final Four. Louisville will play Wichita State and Syracuse faces Michigan. Why does college basketball celebrate the semifinalist teams almost as much as the finalists?

Also: Isabel Allende's love of Zorro; Lemony Snicket makes a Twitter appearance; Cat Marnell's book proposal was leaked.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a kind of yeast used in beer. State representative Mark Johnson thinks making it Oregon's official microbe is a great way to celebrate the state's craft beer industry.

Also: Tensions remain high on the Korean Peninsula; President Obama reportedly plans to propose some cuts in projected spending on social programs; building collapse in India kills and injures dozens of people.

The 11.7 million Americans searching for work got discouraging news Friday morning when the Labor Department said employers created only 88,000 net jobs in March. The weak job growth comes at the same time benefits for the long-term unemployed are shrinking.

An outbreak of E. coli in frozen pizza, cheesesteaks, and other foods makes it clear: Just because the freezer's frosty doesn't mean it can kill microbes that cause food-borne illness.

The latest employment numbers showed far fewer jobs were created in March than in February, disappointing those who had hoped robust growth from the winter months would hold into spring. The news overshadowed an effort from the White House to reach out to Republicans on the tax-and-spend front. The president said he would trim the growth in retirement programs if the GOP would accept some higher taxes. NPR's Scott Horsley talks to Robert Siegel about how the two issues are related.

Critic Alan Cheuse has his review of the new novel Submergence by Scottish journalist J.M. Ledgard.

Nearly two week after rebels seized control of the Central African Republic and ousted its president, the country is a shambles after widespread looting. Conflict-weary citizens want peace and to choose a new government, but it's far from certain that the future will more stable than the past.

With little warning, CPI Corp. closed more than 2,000 studios in the United States. With digital photography affecting its business, the company was unable to pay its loan obligations.