Mark Memmott

Peyton Manning, one of the two or three best quarterbacks in recent years and one of the greatest ever, is close to signing a contract to play for the NFL's Denver Broncos, according to multiple reports.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter say the deal is done "barring a snag during intensified contract negotiations" between the team and Manning's agent, Tom Condon. They cite "multiple sources."

There's somebody like him in every workplace.

The know-it-all who just has to show how smart he is about the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

So, if you're like us and don't have a lot of time to pay attention to March Madness, might we suggest a proactive approach now that the field is down to the "Sweet 16?"

Pick one of these teams — North Carolina State, Ohio or Xavier.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Killing Of Fla. Teen Trayvon Martin Becomes National Story About Race.

-- Apple To Buy Back $10B In Shares; Pay Dividend Of $2.65 Per Share.

The Associated Press just moved this alert:

"Apple says it will use its cash to start paying dividend of $2.65, buy back $10B in shares."

Here are some of the latest developments concerning the March 11 killings of 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan and the U.S. Army staff sergeant, Robert Bales, who is suspected of carrying out the massacre:

-- Defense attorney John Henry Browne will today "have his first face-to-face meeting with the 10-year Army veteran, who is being held in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth's military prison in Kansas," The Associated Press reports.

Now that 911 recordings show how a white Florida man continued to follow a 17-year-old black boy even after police advised him not to — and captured the sound of the man killing the unarmed youth with a shot to the chest — Trayvon Martin's family wants the FBI to take over the investigation into his killing.

The gunman says it was an act of self defense during a Neighborhood Watch patrol.

There are fears in France today that the killings of at least four people outside a Jewish school in the city of Toulouse are linked to earlier murders of three soldiers and that the victims were targeted because they belonged to ethnic or religious minorities.

The "family friend" who told The Oregonian that its editorial page editor was in his car on Saturday when he died of a heart attack turns out to have been another editor at the newspaper. She says she was trying to protect Caldwell's family from the public embarrassment that would come with the truth: that he had been in the apartment of a young woman with whom he was allegedly having sex.

Some of the documents seized last May after U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan show that the al-Qaida leader "boldly commanded his network to organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Barack Obama and Gen.