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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Coming up, spring has sprung, so a good greeting for today is not just, Happy Spring, but also Happy New Year if you celebrate the Persian holiday, Norouz. We'll find out more about it in just a few minutes.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, later in our mom's conversation we will pick up on an important conversation we know many people are having around bullying. Last week, we heard from a 15-year-old who'd been bullied at school for years. Today, we'll hear how his mom felt about hearing about this in a documentary. That's coming up later in the program.

In his latest book, Pakistan on the Brink, journalist Ahmed Rashid writes that he fears Pakistan "is on the brink of a meltdown."

"I fear almost anything could [send it over the edge]," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "There could be a major terrorist attack in the U.S. or Europe which is traced back to Pakistan. ... Then there's a very, very critical economic crisis in the country. There's no investment, no money, there's no energy — I live in Lahore. We've had no gas for six months."

A grand jury in Florida is going to investigate the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a case that has grabbed national attention because of concern that the young man may have been a victim of racial profiling and that local police haven't been aggressive enough about looking into his death.

Orlando's WESH-TV reports that:

A lot of people think they have food allergies, but they're likely wrong.

That's partly because it's easy to confuse common food-related problems like lactose intolerance or celiac disease with an allergy. But it's also because there are a lot of tests promoted for food allergies that don't measure up.

The "horrific killings" this month of 16 Afghan civilians, allegedly by a U.S. Army staff sergeant, will be fully investigated and "justice will be done," a top Pentagon official just told the House Armed Services Committee.

An actuary named Cecil Bykerk spends his days walking a fine line.

As the head of the board that runs Iowa's health plan for uninsured residents who can't qualify for private coverage, he wants to make sure that folks who need insurance can get it.

Along with the latest news about the U.S. Army staff sergeant who allegedly murdered 16 Afghan civilians on March 11, we want to note this heart-breaking quote from a man who says he lost almost all his family in that massacre: