Challenges

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - Story lines are plentiful here at the Bridgeport Regional semifinal portion of the NCAA women's basketball tournament. There's the $10.8 million contract extension given by the University of Connecticut to its Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown and has guided the top-seeded Huskies (31-4) to seven national titles. No. 4 seed Maryland (26-7), the team UConn will face Saturday in the second game in the sold out Webster Bank Arena, took a new approach to the postseason by taking the Acela Express on Amtrak from College Park to the Terrapins' hotel in Stamford, 30 minutes south of here.

SALT LAKE CITY - If the Miami Heat keep streaking - they have won 27 straight - they could tie the NBA record by beating the 76ers on April 6. The record of 33 straight wins was set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. Sixers coach Doug Collins believes that the Heat are good enough to break the record. "Sure they can," Collins said Monday. "They have been pulling rabbits out of their hat lately, but they are in a rhythm. "Absolutely, they could do it. They have great players, a great coach, they defend every night and they have championship players like Ray Allen and Shane Battier coming off their bench.

David Lindsay-Abaire's Broadway hit play Good People , at Walnut Street Theatre, is about class. It is a sociological cliche that the American inclination is always to root for the underdog, which often means, as it does here, the unlucky, the uneducated, the unemployed. "Un" is the fact of life in "Southie," a thickly accented rough and tough neighborhood in Boston. The plot centers on Margaret (Julie Czarnecki) who, fired by her nice-guy boss (Jered McLenigan) from her job at the Dollar Store, faces eviction from her not-so-nice landlady (Sharon Alexander)

Powerball's latest jackpot is worth $320 million, big enough to make the list of the 15 biggest annuity prizes ever in the United States. The cash jackpot of $198.3 million even makes the Top 10. For the numbers drawn Wednesday night and more, see " Powerball jackpot 4th biggest ever . " 2012 was the most jackpot-crazy year ever, producing the biggest Mega Millions jackpot ever, the biggest Powerball jackpot ever, and two more Powerball...

IT'S a go-big-or-go-home campaign year for Philadelphia Traffic Court, with 23 of the 39 candidates for three open seats now facing legal challenges to their nomination petitions or financial-disclosure forms. Candidates had to file petitions with at least 1,000 signatures from registered voters in the city by March 12. The deadline to challenge those documents in Common Pleas Court was Tuesday at 5 p.m. A list of the challenged candidates can be found at ph.ly/challenge. The Philadelphia City Commission on Wednesday will select ballot positions for the candidates, with a top position often the easiest path to victory.

  The reopening this summer of the Benjamin Franklin Museum in Old City may be postponed because of the federal budget cuts known as the sequester. Initially opened in 1976, then closed in 2011, the museum celebrating Philadelphia's Great Man was supposed to be ready for the summer tourist season after a $23.1 million modernization. But because of a hiring freeze brought on by the sequester, the National Park Service may not have enough people to staff the museum, still being rebuilt and updated.

Louisville may be the tournament's overall No. 1 seed, but the Cardinals certainly weren't rewarded with a cushy path to the Final Four. Winners of 10 straight, including the Big East championship, Louisville is a worthy favorite. But there is plenty of company in a loaded Midwest Regional. Led by forward Mason Plumlee, Duke was a cinch for a top seed before losing to Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. No team is carried more by emotion than Atlantic Ten champion St. Louis.

New Jersey is hoping to lure an offshore wind manufacturer to the state to help jump-start a green industry, but a lucrative incentive aimed at attracting the business is no longer available. A landmark offshore-wind law enacted by the Christie administration in 2010 offered up to $100 million in tax credits if a manufacturer located its operations in the state, but to qualify, a company had to make its decision by the end of 2012. Lawmakers in both chambers have introduced bills extending the deadline to July 1, 2014.

Three Republicans from New Jersey's Third Legislative District announced their candidacy Thursday for the state Senate and Assembly, seeking to break through in a Democratic stronghold that is home to Senate President Stephen Sweeney. His challenger will be Niki Trunk, 38, a lawyer and former deputy mayor of Harrison Township. "Over the years, you see state government has gone out of control with spending and taxing and borrowing money we just don't have," she said. Of Sweeney, she said, "I believe he has not represented the people of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland Counties in the best way. He needs to be reined in. " Sweeney said he and his Third District Democratic colleagues in the Assembly - John Burzichelli and Celeste Riley - are running for reelection.