Here’s what you need to know.

Good morning, Arizona, and happy Monday! Here’s what you need to know.

Monday is expected to bring sunny skies with a high between 80 and 84.

Lows tonight should drop to around 55 as the skies stay clear and slightly windy.

GORSUCH TAKES SUPREME COURT SEAT

Neil Gorsuch survived a very public Capitol Hill battle over his Supreme Court nomination. Now gets the lifetime privilege, starting Monday, of seeing how things work in that limelight-averse power center just across First Street NE.

His swearing-in as the nation’s 113th Supreme Court justice puts the court back at full strength — nine seats — more than a year after the death of Antonin Scalia, seen as a kindred conservative,

The 9 a.m. ET ceremony caps an early victory for the Trump administration, whose Republican allies in the Senate ensured Gorsuch’s nomination.

Politicians pro and con having registered their opinions on Gorsuch, only time will tell what role the Coloradan, formerly a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, will have on weighty issues the court will face in the months and years to come.

PHOENIX HOUSING SALES RISE

March was a great month for metro Phoenix. The weather was wonderful. Baseball’s spring training was in full swing.  And people flocked here to enjoy both.

To close out the month, we also had basketball fans starting to stream into the Valley for the finals of March Madness. And some of those visitors checked out homes as well as the college championship basketball games.

CLOSE

Valley home sales and prices are up and expected to keep climbing based on last month’s pace.
Wochit

The final results aren’t yet in for Phoenix’s housing market in March, but real-estate analysts and agents are already calling it the third-straight month of a winning streak for sales and prices. And what happens in the Valley’s housing market during March is a good sign of what’s to come during rest of the year.

WOMAN GIVES BIRTH FOLLOWING CRASH ON 1-17

A woman who was 8 months pregnant and three of her children were involved in a three-vehicle collision on a Phoenix freeway early Sunday afternoon. After fire crews extricated her from the vehicle, she was taken to a hospital where she gave birth.

The condition of the newborn baby, delivered by emergency cesarean section, was not immediately known, fire officials said.

The wreck happened along on northbound Interstate 17 south of Camelback Road. The accident blocked three lanes of traffic for several hours.

The collision occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m., said Trooper Kameron Lee, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. He said it appeared that one of the vehicles, a minivan, was rear-ended in the incident.

TODAY IN HISTORY

-In 1790, President George Washington signed the first United States Patent Act.

-In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.

-In 1925, the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “The Great Gatsby” was first published by Scribner’s of New York.

-In 1932, German President Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff, with Adolf Hitler coming in second.

-In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.

-In 1957, Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to all shipping traffic. (The canal had been closed due to wreckage resulting from the Suez Crisis.) The jury-deliberation film drama “12 Angry Men,” starring Henry Fonda, premiered in Los Angeles. John Osborne’s play “The Entertainer,” starring Laurence Olivier, opened in London.

-In 1967, at the Academy Awards, “A Man for All Seasons” won best picture of 1966; its star, Paul Scofield, was named best actor; Elizabeth Taylor received best actress for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

-In 1974, Golda Meir told party leaders she was resigning as prime minister of Israel.

-In 1981, imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was declared the winner of a by-election to the British Parliament.

-In 1992, comedian Sam Kinison was killed in a car crash outside Needles, California, at age 38.

-In 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.

-In 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczynski (lehk kah-CHIN’-skee), 60, was killed in a plane crash in western Russia that also claimed the lives of his wife and top Polish political, military and church officials.

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