The 10-Point: The Presidential Race, Iran Nuclear Talks, Health-Care Deals and More

Taking the Field

Spring is here and presidential ambition is flowering all over. With a year and seven months before Election Day, the field for the 2016 presidential election on both sides is coming into clearer focus. We report that Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) is laying plans to announce his presidential bid in two weeks at the historic Freedom Tower in Miami, and Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) is scheduled to announce his candidacy in just over a week at a rally in Louisville. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is likely to end years of speculation about her political plans and officially jump in the race mid-April. Less clear is the timetable for former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, whose announcement could come as late as this summer. While we note that Mr. Rubio would enter the Republican race as something of an underdog, trailing the top three or four contenders in national public-opinion surveys of the likely GOP field, our Washington Bureau Chief Gerald Seib writes that Mr. Rubio has quietly moved into the upper tier of a crowded field for the 2016 nomination.

Nuclear Fusion

As Tuesday’s deadline looms, President Obama has ramped up efforts to gather support for a potential nuclear deal with Iran. Our story examines the scope of those efforts as well as the motivation behind them. We note that widespread opposition from lawmakers in both parties has forced the White House to begin considering a potential compromise with Congress. “We’re open to talking to Congress about what they might do, how they might be heard on the Iran deal and how they might play an oversight role,” a senior Obama administration official said. White House officials are moving ahead with a behind-the-scenes strategy, tailored more than a year ago, with key groups who might help overcome opposition. According to people familiar with the discussions, they have tried to neutralize skeptical Democrats by arguing that opposing Mr. Obama would empower the new Republican majority. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, the U.S. and its European partners are laboring to win Russian backing for a mechanism that would allow suspended United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran to snap rapidly back into effect if Tehran is caught cheating on a nuclear deal. And in Iraq, Iranian-backed Shiite militias remained on the front lines yesterday in the battle to retake the strategic city of Tikrit from Islamic State, days after the U.S. demanded they be sidelined as a condition for joining the fight with airstrikes.

Don’t Bank on It

What does it take to flourish in the tough new post-financial crisis regulatory environment? Perhaps a drive-through window that can accommodate a horse and buggy. We report that Bank of Bird-in-Hand is the only new bank to have opened in the U.S. since 2010, when the Dodd-Frank law was passed. Based in rural Pennsylvania, it caters mainly to the local Amish community. The bank (pictured above) doesn’t offer online banking, but it is pony friendly. There is widespread concern about the paucity of new banks because smaller institutions make the majority of farm and small-business loans, federal data show. Bankers say the dearth is a sign that new regulations are increasing expenses and discouraging potential startups from even trying, while regulators say the profit squeeze from rock-bottom interest rates is a bigger problem. For reference, an average of more than 100 new banks a year opened in the three decades before Dodd-Frank.

Healthy Tie-Ups

Breaking on WSJ.com: It’s shaping up to be big day for health-care deals. UnitedHealth Group is set to acquire Catamaran for about $12.8 billion in cash, bulking up its pharmacy-benefit business as spending on cutting-edge drugs is a growing concern for employers and insurers. Catamaran, the fourth-largest pharmacy-benefit manager in the U.S. by volume of prescriptions processed, will be merged into UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx unit, the industry’s third-largest player and part of the Optum health-services arm of the health-care giant. And in Europe, Zimmer Holdings has secured approval in the European Union for its $13 billion acquisition of fellow orthopedic-device maker Biomet after agreeing to sell three businesses to assuage antitrust concerns.

And Then There Were Four…

Loved by fans and mocked by foes, the Blue Devils won’t hesitate to use physical gestures should they need a critical stop in their Elite Eight game. We examine the custom of players slapping the floor on defense that is closely associated with Duke basketball. It has evolved from a novelty by a single player in the 1980s to this year’s synchronized group gesture. Duke and low-seed Michigan State advanced on Sunday to a date in the Final Four. Meanwhile, earlier, Wisconsin beat the slightly favored Arizona Wildcats 55-45, after trailing 33-30 at the end of the first half. It’s getting tough telling just who is Wisconsin’s dominant big man. Seven-footer Frank Kaminsky has been everyone’s pick for player of the year, but it was his fellow forward Sam Dekker who had a big second half in his team’s 85-78 Elite Eight win over Arizona. And in Cleveland, the unbeatable Kentucky team was on the verge of defeat at the hands of Notre Dame, but survived. College basketball now has a fascinating Final Four in Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and Wisconsin, but a familiar question hovers over everything, our sports columnist Jason Gay writes: Will Kentucky lose?

TOP STORIES

U.S.

Needle Exchanges Gain Currency

Indiana Governor Defends ‘Religious Freedom’ Law

WORLD

Liability for Germanwings Crash May Still Rest With Airline, Insurer

Nigeria Vote Counting Begins Following Delays

BUSINESS

How Jeffrey Katzenberg Is Rewriting DreamWorks’ Script

U.S. Coding Website GitHub Hit With Cyberattack

MARKETS

Merger That Came to Aid of Knight Capital Struggles

Stocks Revisit Last Spring’s Selloff—With a Difference

NUMBER OF THE DAY

$500 million

The amount Volvo said it plans to spend on building a vehicle plant in the U.S. It will decide on which state to locate it in about a month.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

‘Let’s be honest here: the presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families. It is an awesome and sacred trust to be earned and exercised on behalf of the American people.’

—Former Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Maryland Democrat and potential contender for the presidential nomination, on ABC’s “This Week.”

TODAY’S QUESTION

On the Republican side, what are your thoughts on Mr. Rubio’s entry into the presidential race? Send your comments, which we may edit before publication, to 10point@wsj.com. Please include your name and location.

—Compiled by Khadeeja Safdar

READER RESPONSE

Responding to Friday’s question about the U.S.’s role in the Middle East,Paul Schwartz wrote from Israel that “The U.S. State Department as well as President Obama’s inner circle of advisors seem to have lost their way. Their policy in the Middle East is incongruent and lacking of will to back up the precepts for which our nation stands.” Joseph P. Porter of Missouri commented: “I have always thought that our policy should be hands-off, limiting our strategic alliance to the support of Israel. The dynamics of Islamic nations are too complex (not to mention incoherent to outsiders) to enable us to formulate a completely consistent foreign policy. That is why we find ourselves in the current situation.” And Paul Taube observed from Texas: “The U.S. foolishly and naively became embroiled in the war in Iraq and disrupted the balance of power in the Middle East. The decision of the current President was to withdraw and let the pieces fall where they will. The end result has been confusing and inconsistent policies that leave our allies dumbfounded and alienated.”

This daily briefing is named “The 10-Point” after the nickname conferred by the editors of The Wall Street Journal on the lead column of the legendary “What’s News” digest of top stories. Technically, “10-point” referred to the size of the typeface. The type is smaller now but the name lives on.

Photo: Daryl Preveto for The Wall Street Journal