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If you usually wait until April to file your taxes, you might want to hurry up — before identity thieves beat you to it. Using stolen names and Social Security numbers, these criminals file fake tax returns. This generates big, and fraudulent, refunds, before the real taxpayer gets around to filing.

Melissa Block speaks with Dr. Story Landis, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, about the Brain Activity Map project written about in today's New York Times. If it goes forward, the project would seek to find treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism, psychiatric disorders and more.

The Republican senator is a two-term governor who ran for Senate in 2007. He was President Bush's agriculture secretary. His term ends in 2014.

The iconic brand Maker's Mark had planned to cut its alcohol content from 90 proof down to just 84, due to dwindling supply. Now, after a serious backlash from fans, the company has reversed its decision and will stick to the original alcohol content. Melissa Block hears from one liquor store owner in Louisville, Ky., about his customers' reactions to the decision.

The man who brought Showtime to Los Angeles has died. Under Lakers owner Jerry Buss, the team won 10 NBA championships. His players loved him, and his business smarts helped market the team in ways the league had never seen before. Buss had been hospitalized recently and was undergoing treatment for cancer. He was 80 years old.

Regulators in Mexico are struggling to rein in what they say are grave and repeat monopolistic practices by the richest man in the world. Carlos Slim Helu, the owner of Mexico's telephone company, just received another multimillion-dollar fine from the country's fledgling anti-corruption regulatory agency. Slim has successfully appealed or fought previous fines. But lawmakers say they are determined to make him play fairly and by the rules.

The United Nations now says some 5,000 Syrians are leaving the country every day, headed for any neighboring country that will take them. Up until now, the tiny country of Lebanon has hosted the highest number of Syrian refugees. Lebanon has its own history of problems related to large numbers of refugees, so now the country is forbidding the construction of formal refugee camps.

Reginald Hudlin produced Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, and talked with Tell Me More guest host Celeste Headlee about the changing film industry. On his way out, he showed us some NPR love.

The Supreme Court hears arguments on whether the federal government can be sued for the actions of prison guards. It comes 50 years after the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright ruling required states to provide counsel for indigent criminal defendants, a case that also began with a long shot, longhand plea from behind bars.

People have been downloading about 10 apps per month onto their devices. Great news for businesses, except research from the business consulting firm Nuance Enterprise shows that the vast majority of those apps are quickly forgotten about, especially those that are free.