The GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed Paul Ryan’s $3.53 trillion budget plan. The bill has virtually no chance of passing in the Senate, but it cleared the House in a 228–191 vote—no Democrats supported it and 10 Republicans were against it. The plan includes an overhaul of the tax code and serious changes to popular entitlements. “We have one of the most predictable economic crises in this country coming,” Ryan said. “It’s a debt-driven crisis. And so we have an obligation—not just a legal obligation, but a moral obligation to do something about it.”

This time the Foxconn fail is for real. A highly anticipated audit of the company that runs the factories that supply Apple shows that more than 60 percent of the workers at three plants say their wages fall short of basic needs. Furthermore, the report found that workers are putting in more than 60 hours per week without overtime pay and that safety conditions are below normal. Factory workers earn $358 a month on average, the Fair Labor Association, an independent group, found. The FLA surveyed more 35,000 employees about working and living conditions in Foxconn facilities.

This year, Ann Romney will celebrate her birthday with a fundraiser for her husband, hosted by Melania Trump. The event will take place at the New York City home of Melania and Donald and will cost attendees $1,000 each. The invitation stipulates that Romney donors who’ve already contributed $2,500—the federally mandated limit—can still attend as long as they bring a friend who can donate $1,000.

The first eyewitness account of the events leading up to 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s death has emerged: An anonymous man, his voice disguised, said on CNN that he looked out his window and saw Trayvon and George Zimmerman, the shooter, “scuffling” on the ground when two shots rang out. The witness says that Zimmerman then walked away with his hand on his forehead, looking “worried,” but not injured. Before peeping out, the man heard angry voices outside. The man says that he reported the details of the incident to the police when it happened. Police video of Zimmerman doesn’t appear to show any blood—contradicting Zimmerman’s story.

About one in 88 children has autism or a related disorder on the spectrum, the Centers for Disease Control said Thursday. These rates—the highest ever—represent a 25 percent increase from the last analysis, in 2006 and a 78 percent increase since 2000. The rate among boys is five times that of girls’, with one in 54 boys reported as being on the autism spectrum as opposed to one in 252 girls. Researchers said about half the increase is due to broader diagnostic criteria and higher awareness, but they are still searching for what else could be driving the spike.

Mohammed Merah won’t be buried in an Algerian village, after its mayor responded negatively. “Algeria has nothing to do with this case, and we do not understand why some circles in France are trying to involve us in it,” a government source said. The 23-year-old Frenchman, who killed seven people in France, will likely be buried near Toulouse, the location of his final rampage at a Jewish school. Merah’s father, who wanted his son buried in Algeria, has lashed out at French authorities for killing Merah instead of putting him on trial, and threatened to sue the state.

Wisconsin recall activists collected hundreds of thousands of signatures more than required for a recall election to take place against Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Close to 901,000 signatures were submitted on the petition submitted Thursday. Only 540,000 were needed. The Government Accountability Board is expected to vote Friday to certify the recall elections. Only five fake names, 4,000 duplicate names and 26,100 incomplete names were found on the petitions. Wisconsin residents had already collected enough signatures to recall four GOP state senators, as well.

Calling in some bad news for Research In Motion, the Canadian tech company that makes BlackBerrys. RIM lost $125 million last quarter despite a record number of people owning BlackBerrys and is now doing some serious soul-searching to face the challenges of the market. The bad news was compounded as former chief executive Jim Balsille resigned from the board of directors. (He quit his CEO post in January.) Jim Rowan, the chief operating officer, and David Yach, chief technology officer, are leaving the company as well.

Refugees who have fled from Syria’s ongoing bloody crackdown said that the government has lined the Turkish border with land mines—and Turkish authorities are now backing them up. More than 17,000 Syrians are living in Turkish refugee camps, with hundreds of new arrivals coming every day—and Turkish officials say that at least 10 land-mine victims have been treated at their hospitals in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the Syrian crisis took top priority at the Arab League summit in Baghdad, with leaders urging Damascus to act on the United Nations–sponsored peace plan “immediately and completely.”

The bee population has been dwindling for years, and now scientists have a better handle on why. It turns out pesticides, which disrupt the central nervous systems of insects, disorient bees and make it difficult for them to find their way home. They also reduce the number of queen bees in the hive, which lowers reproductive rates. The Environmental Protection Agency is re-evaluating which chemicals it will allow in pesticides, and last week activists filed a petition seeking to ban neonicotinoids pesticides.

During a conference call Wednesday, Mitt Romney told Wisconsin voters a hilarious story about his father being led in a parade while running for governor of Michigan. The marching band only knew the Wisconsin fight song, not the Michigan one, which was super awkward because Romney Sr., then the head of American Motors, didn't want to remind Michigan voters that he was moving his company's factory to Wisconsin. The voters' reaction to this charming tale was muted, but Democrats have already leapt on the story as yet another example of the gap between Mitt and the common man.

Bluegrass virtuoso Earl Scruggs, whose effortless five-string banjo style changed the sound of country music forever, died Wednesday in Nashville. He was 88. Along with picking partner Lester Flatt, Scruggs achieved a measure of mainstream recognition with songs like “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” which was used as the theme of the film Bonnie and Clyde. He'll also be remembered for his work with musicians like Bill Monroe, the inventor of modern bluegrass. Scruggs started playing banjo at the age of 4, and continued releasing albums into the last years of his life.

Katie Couric announced Thursday morning that she will return to morning television after six years when she guest-hosts Good Morning America during Robin Roberts’s vacation. The move comes as Couric is setting up shop at ABC News for her new talk show, Katie, which is scheduled to premiere in the fall. Couric co-hosted NBC’s morning powerhouse the Today show for 15 years, signing off nearly six years ago to anchor the CBS Evening News. Couric’s turn on GMA comes as the morning show has steadily chipped away at Today’s dominance in the ratings.

News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch posted an ominous warning on Twitter Thursday: "Seems every competitor and enemy piling on with lies and libels. So bad, easy to hit back hard, which preparing.” The tycoon has been under renewed fire lately over reports from an Australian newspaper that his media empire had promoted piracy in a bid to top its pay-TV rivals. News Corp. has denied the new allegations, and Murdoch seems personally offended. He followed up: "Enemies many different agendas, but worst old toffs and right wingers who still want last century's status quo with their monoplies."

There’s a puppy that’s got the world looking so crazy in love right now. Three weeks ago, Beyonce the dachshund, weighing only an ounce, was born to a rescue dog. At the time, the little pup fit into a teaspoon. Beyonce’s mother had been pregnant with five puppies, but doctors thought one might be a stillborn. In fact, she wasn’t breathing after being born, but then—after a few chest compressions and puffs of air—began breathing on her own. Beyonce is now the size of an iPhone. And for those curious about her moniker, she was named after something “big.” As Destiny’s Child once sang, she’s a “Survivor.”

It looks as though Lady Luck may have decided to blow on some other candidate’s dice. Newt Gingrich is “at the end of his line,” casino magnate and primary Newt backer Sheldon Adelson told the Jewish Journal Wednesday. Earlier this week, Gingrich chopped his staff by about a third, slimming down his operation as he burns through his cash reserves. But Democratic consultant Ed Espinoza told Politico that it’s just not in Newt’s nature to climb under the nearest rock: “We’ll see him on the speaking circuit again soon enough.”

At the time the proto-human Lucy was tromping around Ethiopia’s Awash Valley 3.2 million years ago, she may have had company. Scientists have assembled newly discovered fossils into a foot that they say may indicate that another ancestor of the modern human may have been alive around the same time in the prehistoric past. While Lucy’s fossils, discovered in 1974, show she had evolved the trait of walking upright, this other species may have been more ape-like, hanging out in the trees. Scientists had previously thought that tree-dwelling hominids did not coexist with a species of erect pre-humans.

A NATO supply convoy fell under attack by insurgents Wednesday, and 20 were killed in the three-hour long fight that ensued. The convoy was traveling along a highway in the country’s westerly province of Farah. Among the dead were an Afghan soldier, five security guards contracted to protect the trucks, and at least 14 of the attackers. The insurgents reportedly overwhelmed the coalition supply vehicles using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

So it’s not just Rick Santorum. A study released on Thursday shows that conservatives’ mistrust of science is at an all-time low, while liberal and moderate support has remained flat since 1974. According to the poll conducted by UNC-Chapel Hill sociologist Gordon Gauchat, just 35 percent of conservatives said they had a “great deal of trust in science.” Gauchat said many conservatives equate science with the government, and the rebellion against the “elite” has dominated the distrust in science. Climate change and evolution are the two issues that cause the largest rift between conservatives and the scientific community.

Isn’t this the kind of thing one picks up after a lifetime of fighting organized religion and capitalism? When Fidel Castro met with Pope Benedict XVI in Havana yesterday, the Cuban revolutionary leader, now 85, asked the pope what it is he does exactly. The pontiff described some of his job responsibilities (aside from getting to wear a big hat) in what the Vatican spokesman called an “exchange of ideas.” There had been hopes that the pope would encourage Cuban leaders to reform, but that message seems to have been mostly missed over the three-day visit.

Do things move faster in Australia? According to Aussie owners of Apple’s new iPad, the device may not be designed to work with the faster speeds of cellular networks outside the United States. The rub, Apple explained, lies in the fact that the iPad’s 4G capability is designed specifically for cellular networks in the U.S. and Canada. Now, groups in Australia and Sweden are clamoring for the 4G branding to be stripped from the product in their countries, alleging that it may be misleading. The company said it will continue to fight in Australian courts to retain the label.

In the battle of bytes, the U.S. is failing, the FBI’s top counter-hacking expert said Wednesday. Shawn Henry, who spent 20 years working with the Bureau to fight cybercrime, is taking a job in the private sector, but there’s much left to be done to fight hackers, he said. While Sony and the Nasdaq have fallen prey to the digital buccaneers who prey on computer networks, Henry said that the current approach to policing the Internet is “unsustainable,” and that a new approach is necessary to secure private and personal computers.

In its final day of hearings on Obamacare, the Supreme Court examined the consequences of ruling the health-care legislation unconstitutional. Justice Antonin Scalia considered the political realities, saying that Washington’s “legislative inertia” would make a moot point of the law if the justices took the “heart out of the statute.” Other Justices said that a broad ruling that struck down the whole law was a political task for which the court is not suited. Also, a salvage job would be hard work. “You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?” Scalia asked a White House lawyer.

George Zimmerman’s face may not have taken a hit, but his credibility sure has. Zimmerman’s attorney had claimed in recent days that Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old his client shot and killed last month, attacked him before the fatal incident, breaking the neighborhood watch captain’s nose and bloodying his head and face. But a police video released Wednesday showed police frisking a handcuffed Zimmerman with no discernible facial injuries. The attorney for the Martin family said that the video “dramatically contradicts his version of the events.”

As the Spanish government plans to unroll new cost-cutting measures, union workers have called a general strike in a country with a nearly 23 percent unemployment rate. Unions said Thursday that factories in Spain have already been shut down by the strike, the seventh in the country since 1985. Authorities reported that transportation, power, and other manufacturing have been disrupted as well, but the government, which took power under conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy three months ago, said it will make no changes to planned labor reforms in response to union demands.

Another win for Mitt. Tea Party Senator Marco Rubio endorsed Mitt Romney in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity. Rubio said that Romney is a "very clear alternative" to Obama's plan for the country. As for the current Republican race, the first-term senator said that it's a "recipe for delivery four more years of Obama." Saying that Romney's earned it, Rubio still didn't say whether he'd be on Romney's ticket. Rubio will be the biggest get for Romney since Jeb Bush threw in his hat for the former governor earlier this month. Rubio continued to deny that he has any interest in being vice president.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook visited Zengzhou, China on Wednesday, inspecting production lines at the new Foxconn 120,000-employee plant built just for the iPhone. Apple’s practice of outsourcing its manufacturing to China came under scrutiny after investigations by the New York Times found evidence of repeated abuse of workers at Foxconn facilities. In January, Apple voluntarily joined the Fair Labor Association, a rights group that will inspect the company’s production line to ensure fair treatment of employees.

Republicans aren’t the only candidates pandering to their bases this season, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed—Obama’s doing the same thing. Bloomberg, the billionaire known for his centrist views, hits the president for embracing the “economic populism” of Occupy Wall Street and says his plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans would raise only $1.1 billion next year. What’s worse, Bloomberg, says, the proposal is based on politics instead of sound policy. Of course, he admits, “I don’t want to pay more in taxes.”

The father of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood-watch volunteer accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, told an Orlando TV station that Martin tried to kill his son before the shooting. “It’s my understanding Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him in the face, in his nose, hitting his head on the concrete,” Robert Zimmerman said. “Trayvon Martin said something to the effect of ‘You’re going to die now’ or 'You’re gonna die tonight’—something to that effect.” Zimmerman’s story seems to be contradicted by police footage that shows his son without injuries shortly after the shooting.

Matt Doheny has some explaining to do. A Gawker tipster caught the Republican congressional hopeful canoodling, and seemingly making out with campaign consultant Monica Notzen while in D.C. for the Republican Congressional Committee’s Washington “candidate school.” The lesson on how to carry out a proper campaign apparently didn’t touch on avoiding inappropriate interactions with women who are not your fiancée. Notzen and Doheny’s press secretary have refused to “get into specifics” about the event in question, but insist that they are “just friends.”

After weeks of controversy and what appeared to be a large-scale exodus of advertisers, Rush Limbaugh seems to have weathered the storm over calling a Georgetown law student a “slut” and a “prostitute.” Though nearly 100 advertisers said they didn’t want to be associated with Limbaugh’s program, many of them were not actually sponsors, and almost all of Limbaugh’s 600 stations have kept the show. “Contrary to the wishful thinking of the professional special-interest groups, reports of sponsors fleeing the Rush Limbaugh Show are grossly exaggerated,” a spokeswoman said. “In fact, the program retains virtually of all its long-term sponsors.”

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour decided to stay out of the 2012 GOP presidential race, and this might have something to do with it: his lobbying group, BGR Group, represents a Russian bank that has financed a company that helped build Iran’s clandestine nuclear power plant. The nuke program is a subject of stern international concern, and Barbour himself has unleashed saber-rattling rhetoric about Iran. The owner of the Russian bank is one of the richest men on the planet, and pays Barbour at least $300,000 a year through a blind trust.

Lilo doesn’t have to lie so low anymore. Lindsay Lohan officially became a free woman on Thursday after a judge ended her supervised probation stemming from her 2007 drunk-driving arrests, with the judge telling her “goodbye and good luck.” Lohan will remain on informal probation until 2014 for taking a necklace without permission. If she has any more trouble before then, she could end up staring down a 245-day jail sentence. Judge Stephanie Sautner warned Lohan that it may seem unfair that she faces constant scrutiny, but “that’s the life you chose.”

Supreme Court justices, take a gander at this. The average health-care costs for a family of four will top $20,000 in 2012, according to an independent research group—a 7 percent increase from 2011. It’s the fifth year in a row that health-care costs have increased between 7 percent and 8 percent, part of an overall health-care cost increase that has seen these expenses double since 2002, when the average family of four only paid $9,235. Employers still shoulder the burden of health-care costs, but employees have been paying a larger portion of these costs every year, analysts said.

Despite the intense interest in the Trayvon Martin case, authorities are invoking the “active criminal investigative information records exemption” to keep from having to reveal any details into their investigation of George Zimmerman. No documents, videos or factual information regarding the case will be released, said special prosecutor Angela Corey’s office in a statement Thursday. The national media has descended on Sanford, the city where Martin was shot and killed. Zimmerman remains uncharged because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, but authorities are investigating to see if they can bring charges.