It's spring, the season when many college students are cramming for final exams. But it's also when some college seniors must prove they can literally stay afloat.

A swim test is still a graduation requirement on a handful of U.S. campuses, mostly in the Northeast. For seniors who have been putting off the exam, it's time to sink or swim.

A Shrinking Tradition

On a recent evening, a handful of seniors at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., gather nervously at the edge of the campus pool, waiting to take the last swim test of the school year.

The man who claims to have orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks is expected to appear in a military courtroom this Saturday. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men are supposed to answer formal charges related to their roles in the plot.

Their arraignment will be at Guantanamo Bay, and it is the first step that leads — possibly years from now — to a military trial.

I See Hawks in LA in Studio B on May 4, 2012.

I See Hawks in LA in Studio B on May 4, 2012.

I See Hawks in Studio B on May 4, 2012.

I See Hawks In LA in Studio B on May 4, 2012.

The San Diego County medical examiner's office has confirmed Junior Seau's death was a suicide, The Associated Press reports. As we reported this morning, signs pointed to suicide, but the former NFL player did not leave a note or other obvious clues.

Seau died Wednesday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, the AP says.

President Obama's voter-approval ratings certainly have been far from spectacular for much of his presidency, remaining mostly below 50 percent since November of 2009.

But on that dimension he may actually be doing better than it appears, at least based on some statistical modeling of presidential approval ratings conducted by George Washington University political scientist John Sides.