1. Capistrano Unified School District trustees restored 6½ furlough days for non-classified employees, and it voted to drop its appeal of a 2010 court decision that it had committed open-meeting Brown Act violations. The Saddleback Valley Unified School District will vote today to determine who will serve on a committee that will advise whether three schools that are considered for closure are surplus properties. 

2. Gov. Jerry Brown was in Orange County and talked taxes and the state budget. He's pushing for a special election to authorize taxes that will help fix the state deficit.

3. Ted Apodaca's Softball Notebook takes a closer look at Tesoro's Lea Wodach, a freshman infielder who lit up her opponents—and friends—at the Woodbridge Warrior Classic.

4. On this day in history, April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began with a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina in which no one was actually killed; four years later, the Union won the war, but 620,000 Americans were dead. In 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died after suffering a stroke, bringing an end to his 12 years as the president who guided the U.S. through the Great Depression and most of WWII. In 1633, the inquisition of Galileo Galilei by the Catholic church began, and he was eventually judged a heretic for promoting the idea that the earth revolved around the sun; it took more than 300 years for the church to admit Galileo was right. In 1975, the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia was evacuated as communist forces closed in; the Lon Noi government surrendered to the Khmer Rouge four days later, which eventually led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the so-called killing fields. In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the world's first spaceman, which included an orbit around the earth in only 89 minutes. In 1981, the U.S. made its first launch of the space shuttle, Columbia, the first reusable manned spacecraft. In 1954, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in the last 40 minutes of a three-hour recording session to be used as the B-side of the record "Thirteen Women."

5. Celebrating birthdays today are David Letterman (64), David Cassidy (61), Tom Clancy (64), Ed O'Neill (65), Herbie Hancock (71), Andy Garcia (55), Vince Gill (54), Shannen Doherty and Nicholas Brendon (both 40), Claire Danes (32) and Brooklyn Decker (24). Others were the late Tiny Tim (1930) and dancer and actress Ann Miller (1923).

For What It's Worth: April is Couple Appreciation Month. This is National Animal Control Appreciation Week. Today is National Library Day.