10 things you need to know today: March 1, 2013

The sequester spending cuts hit, the Vatican begins the search for a new pope, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

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1. CONGRESS FAILS TO REACH A DEAL BEFORE SEQUESTER DEADLINE

The $85 billion in broad spending cuts known as the sequester start taking effect on Friday, after Republicans and Democrats in Congress failed to make a last-minute deal. Two alternative deficit-reduction plans went nowhere in the Senate on Thursday, and many House members left for the weekend hours before the automatic cuts to everything from defense to education, part of a 2011 deal to raise the debt ceiling, were scheduled to begin kicking in. President Obama is scheduled to meet with congressional leaders at the White House on Friday to discuss what to do next, but neither side expects a miracle fix, as Democrats are determined to replace the sequester's cuts with both spending reductions and revenue increases, while Republicans say hiking taxes is out of the question. [CNN]

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.