10 things you need to know today: March 28, 2012

Tea Party supporters protest outside the Supreme Court where justices Wednesday will consider if President Obama&#039;s health care can survive without the individual mandate.

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN SYRIA, DESPITE PEACE PLAN

Syrian government forces continued to fire heavily upon and storm opposition strongholds on Wednesday, a day after the U.N. announced that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had accepted a peace plan calling for the withdrawal of troops and weapons in advance of peace talks with the opposition. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greeted the news of a peace plan with skepticism, saying, "we will judge Assad's sincerity and seriousness by what he does, not by what he says." [Reuters]

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After hearing arguments Tuesday about the constitutionality of mandating that Americans buy health insurance, the Supreme Court on Wednesday will consider if the rest of Obama's health care law can survive without the individual mandate. Many legal experts said that, based on the questions raised Tuesday, it appeared that the majority of justices were inclined to find the individual mandate unconstitutional. [CBS News/Associated Press]

Newt Gingrich has asked his campaign manager to resign and is laying off one-third of his staff in a dramatic reorganization of his cash- and delegate-strapped campaign. A spokesman says Gingrich will now focus on social media and personally calling delegates, asking them to support him over Mitt Romney at the Republican National Convention in August. "We are not going to cede to Mitt Romney's strategy to take the party down," says a Gingrich spokesman. [Associated Press]

The data about the nation's housing market continues to be dismal, with a key index on Tuesday showing that home prices are still falling, while sales of new and existing homes have been on the decline. Still, housing experts are increasingly optimistic, seeing signs of life, including a drop in foreclosures, historically low mortgage rates, and rising confidence amongst U.S. home builders. [Washington Post]

Passengers on a Jet Blue flight from New York to Las Vegas had to physically restrain a captain after he began acting erratically. The captain was locked out of the cockpit by a savvy co-pilot and was walking through the cabin screaming about al Qaeda and a bomb on board. An off-duty pilot on the flight jumped in to help at the controls while other passengers wrestled the ill captain to the ground. [USA Today]

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