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As March Madness takes over this week, how many people are filling out NCAA brackets and why? A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows what share of Americans typically take a shot at bracket predictions and their motivation for joining in the madness. The survey found that about one-quarter of Americans fill out a men’s March Madness bracket every year or some years. But what about the women’s tournament? High-profile NCAA womens basketball games have closed the gap with mens tournaments in terms of viewership and there is more money flowing in and around womens sports in general; womens teams will now be paid to play in the tournament, just like men have for years. It all points to higher interest in how womens teams fare even if the bracket frenzy has not quite caught up. The survey found that 16% of U.S. adults fill out a women’s tournament bracket every year or some years. And it’s much more common for bracket participants to only fill out a bracket for the men’s tournament than the women’s about 1 in 10 U.S. adults only fill out a men’s tournament bracket, while only 2% fill out only a women’s bracket. Another 14% fill out a bracket for both tournaments at least some years. So, a sizeable chunk of Americans are into NCAA bracketology, but what’s behind the hype? Among those who fill out brackets at least some years, about 7 in 10 say a reason for their participation was for the glory of winning, the chance to win money or the fact that other people were doing it. They’re less likely to be motivated by support for a specific school or team and in particular, to say this was a major reason for their participation. There’s certainly a financial motivation for correctly predicting the Final Four, and it’s hard to deny NCAA college basketball is in a betting-heavy era. More Americans can legally bet money on the NCAA mens and womens basketball tournaments than in previous years, and many will place a wager on their brackets success. Does that mean Americans think the tournaments are all about wagering, or that it’s technically gambling to enter a friends-and-family pool with only a modest payout at stake? Most U.S. adults 56% say that if someone enters a March Madness bracket pool for money, they consider that to be gambling. About 2 in 10 say it depends on the amount of money, and another 2 in 10, roughly, say this is not gambling. Who are the March Madness bracket diehards? Men tend to make up the bulk of the regulars who fill out a bracket at least some years. Among the March Madness bracket regulars, about 6 in 10 are men, including about one-third who are men under the age of 45. These bracket regulars are less likely to be women; only about 4 in 10 are women, and theyre about evenly split between being older or younger. Those who only fill out a bracket for the mens tournament are also overwhelmingly men. About 7 in 10 people who fill out a men’s bracket and not a women’s bracket every year or some years are men. About 4 in 10 are men over 45, and about 3 in 10 are younger men. If you can’t beat them, avoid them? Not everyone wants to risk a bracket buster and people avoiding the Madness this month are hardly alone. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they never fill out a mens or womens bracket. This group leans more female: About 6 in 10 bracket avoiders are women. And roughly one-third in this group are women over 45. ___ The AP-NORC poll of 1,112 adults was conducted Feb. 6-10, using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Linley Sanders, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on Monday he had asked the government efficiency team led by Elon Musk for assistance with a number of issues, including a review of the agency’s retail center lease renewals and combating counterfeit postage. In a letter to the U.S. Congress, DeJoy said the U.S. Postal Service needs help with the renewal of leases on its 31,000 retail centers and faces a counterfeit postage that he called a $1 billion problem in need of “additional innovative solutions.” DeJoy also reiterated in a letter to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team that the Postal Service is an independent establishment of the executive branch. “When the DOGE team recently reached out to me to pitch in, I decided to constructively direct their attention to the areas I know we can use any and all help,” DeJoy said. “The fact is that DOGE is the only other game in town that seems oriented toward helping us to achieve our efficiency and cost goals.” DeJoy noted that price hikes in retail center renewals were a key issue, with landlords “well aware of the political difficulties we face when moving or consolidating a retail location,” even though half of retail post offices fail to cover the costs of their local operations. Last week, DeJoy signed an agreement with DOGE to provide assistance to the agency as it works to address “big problems.” USPS, an agency with 635,000 employees that lost $9.5 billion last year, has been exempt from DOGE-directed federal employee reductions. DeJoy said last week that USPS plans to reduce its workforce by 10,000 workers in the next month through a voluntary early retirement program first announced in January. The agency has cut 30,000 jobs since 2021. He cited a number of issues including other government agencies’ management of USPS retirement assets and its workers’ compensation program, unfunded mandates, burdensome regulatory requirements and the government’s calculation of USPS retirement liabilities. DeJoy has not sought DOGE’s help in shrinking the size of the USPS workforce. DeJoy has led a dramatic effort to restructure USPS over the last five years, including cutting forecasted cumulative losses over a decade to $80 billion from $160 billion. The outgoing postal chief has used tactics similar to the DOGE team, including shrinking the workforce and canceling or renegotiating contracts. Two media outlets reported last month that President Donald Trump was preparing to issue an executive order to fire the USPS’ board of governors. The White House denied the plan, but Trump said he was considering merging USPS with the Commerce Department, a move Democrats said would violate federal law. Musk said this month he thought USPS should be privatized. David Shepardson, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Since December, Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has become an internet phenomenon. Both scorned and idolized, his notoriety has given rise to a number of online communities. Some have begun embracing violent rhetoric. A moderator from the long-standing subreddit r/popculture, where discussions about Mangione had been ongoing, was recently suspended for approving a large number of comments (by Reddit standards, that means at least 20) that contained direct calls for violence. This sub has been placed in restricted mode, and the main mod was suspended for approving comments that mentioned Luigi, a post on r/popculture claimed. Apparently, saying Luigi is now against the rules too, even though they never told us. All comments with the word Luigi get flagged as possibly inciting violence. While some users claimed they had been blocked or censored simply for mentioning Mangiones name, a Reddit spokesperson said theres no sitewide filter for the word Luigi or expectation that users stop talking about Mangione. According to the spokesperson, the /popculture moderators suspension was a result of allowing comments that advocated for violencea direct violation of the companys Mod Code of Conduct. Despite the crackdown, plenty of other Mangione-related subreddits remain active on Reddit. r/FreeLuigi, which describes itself as a place to keep up to date on the case involving Luigi Mangione, boasts some 37,000 followers. (Slate recently spoke to one of the r/FreeLuig moderators, who claimed the subreddit was not meant to condone violence against health insurance CEOs. No one in r/FreeLuigi wants anyone to get murdered, and no one is celebrating that a man died, the moderator said.) Reddits safety team recently issued a warning to users that subreddits found promoting or amplifying violent content could face consequences. Today we are rolling out a new (sort of) enforcement action across the site, the alert read. [S]tarting today, users who, within a certain timeframe, upvote several pieces of content banned for violating our policies will begin to receive a warning. (Upvotes and downvotes are core to Reddits algorithm, determining a posts visibility.) The message concluded with a note that, while the system is currently warn only, additional enforcement measures could eventually follow.
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E-Commerce
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