Let the games begin! Sixty-three games actually. I’m talking about March Madness, when 126 college basketball teams face off for the title of NCAA basketball champion.

This means it’s time to fill in your tournament bracket. But is it possible to pick a perfect bracket? Has anyone ever chosen every single winning team?

There’s more math to basketball then just racking up two points here… three points there… how do you pick your winner?

We hate to tell you this, but your chances of picking a perfect NCAA March Madness bracket is low… really low.

In fact, the experts who study the numbers behind March Madness say that if you randomly pick your bracket, the chances of winning is about one in 9.2 quintillion.

You have a better chance of winning the Powerball twice in a row. Researchers using statistical methods have only reliably picked about 70% of the games correctly, making the probability of a perfect bracket one in 5.7 billion.

If you could reliably pick the winner of each game 75% of the time, the probability of perfection jumps all the way to one in 74 million.

Here’s one tip — it’s a safe bet to choose all the number one seed teams to win their first-round matchups against number 16 seed teams, considering in the entire history of the tournament, only one number one seed team has ever lost to a 16 seed.

Here’s hoping you will beat the odds and be the first to pick a perfect bracket.

The probability of a perfect bracket is so low that Warren Buffet offered a billion dollars to anyone who could pull it off in 2014. No one did.

Sources: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/mathmatical-madness-behind-perfect-ncaa-basketball-bracket-180971763/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ncaa-bracketology https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/mathmatical-madness-behind-perfect-ncaa-basketball-bracket-180971763/

Contributor(s) to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer and Editor. To receive a free weekly email on Smart Living from Ivanhoe, sign up at: http://www.ivanhoe.com/ftk

A man is in critical condition after he was shot by another man who was found asleep on the porch of his grandfather’s home overnight, according to San Antonio police.

The shooting happened around 12:16 a.m. Saturday on the Southeast Side in the 1500 block of McKinley.

When officers arrived at the home, where the 24-year-old victim lives with his grandfather, they found his girlfriend applying pressure to his chest.

She told police another man was found asleep on the back porch of the home. Her boyfriend said he was going to try and wake him up.

However when he did, the man who was asleep woke up and shot him in the chest, authorities said.

The armed man then took off in an unknown direction.

EMS arrived and transported the injured man to the Brooke Army Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

A description of the suspect hasn’t been provided as of yet. The investigation continues.

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A pedestrian has died after being struck by a vehicle on the East Side, according to the San Antonio Fire Department.

The incident happened around 5:45 p.m. Friday at N. Walters and Dignowity.

Fire officials said the pedestrian was taken from the scene by EMS but later died at an area hospital.

It’s unknown if the driver will face any charges and further details are limited at this time.

We’ll bring more updates as they become available.

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Fifteen Somerset ISD students are taking part in a new program that’s helping to train future first responders.

Somerset ISD launched the EMT training program for seniors this school year. It could not come at a better time when the nation is seeing a national shortage of EMS workers.

Of the 15 students in the program, all but one are female.

Jaime Hernandez, an EMT for 21 years, is the program director. She’s excited to help train the future generation of first responders.

“They would be able to work in an emergency room, in a clinic. They would be able to get into other fields, such like law enforcement, military, fire department,” Hernandez said.

For students in rural communities, this training, followed by completing the national EMS exam, will allow graduates to earn up to $32,000 a year while possibly attending college.

Word about the program is spreading, and 21 students have signed up for the next school year’s cohort.

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A man is in critical condition and a woman is injured after they were both struck by a pickup truck on the South Side, according to San Antonio police.

The incident happened around 7:30 p.m. Friday on Cadmus Street & L.C. Amos Jr.

Police said the pair, both in their 40s, was walking in the road when a silver pickup truck was heading westbound on Amos.

The driver of the truck told officers he had a glare in his eyesight from the sun and didn’t see the pedestrians in the road, striking them with his truck.

Authorities said the man and woman were transported by EMS to the Brooke Army Medical Center. The woman is stable, but the man’s condition has worsened to critical.

The driver won’t face any charges, as police said the crash was an accident. The investigation continues.

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Demolition of the iconic Jacala Mexican Restaurant was paused Friday while crews searched through the building gutted by Thursday’s massive fire.

Among the treasured finds were a few menus with a photo of Rudy and Del Quinones, who founded the restaurant in 1949.

Their daughters, Cynthia Lambert and Lucille Hooker, gently held the menus that were soaked and stained with soot and mud.

Hooker said her parents would be saying, “We’re very proud how long you kept it. We’re proud of what you did. We’re proud of what it became in the community.”

Also spared were several photos, including one of Governor Greg Abbott and his family, as well as a group photo of the owners and others at a table enjoying margaritas after a busy Mother’s Day at the restaurant.

“The memories are unbelievable that are here,” Hooker said.

For instance, Lambert said she remembered a young woman who as it turned out, had come for her last meal before she planned to kill herself.

After she heard people at a nearby table talking about the goodness of life, when the woman was done, Lambert said she left a note saying, “I was going to go home and commit suicide. And after hearing these people talk, I changed my mind.”

Hooker said someone had called Friday wanting to reserve a table for 50, only to be told the restaurant had burned down.

She said the woman was “heartbroken, heartbroken, just heartbroken.”

Lambert said the day of the fire remains a blur, but she’ll always remember the outpouring of love and support from customers and even other restaurants.

La Fogata called the day of the fire offering jobs for Jacala’s 40 employees.

Hooker said it wanted “to hire everybody 100% at 100% of their pay.”

As a board member of the San Antonio Restaurant Association, Hooker said, “They’ve all called me, reached out, said if there’s no room there, we will take them on.”

Lambert said it’s further proof of what Jacala meant to the community.

“Our hearts are broken, but you all have come together and you all have embraced us,” she said.

They said the restaurant was insured, but it’s too early to say if the restaurant will re-open.

Lambert said, “We have to kind of dust ourselves off and see where we’re going.”

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Ellissa Petrenko, a San Antonio native, moved to Ukraine after marrying Andrii. Both worked as Christian missionaries near Kyiv for about a year.

Since the morning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine on Feb. 25, Ellissa’s Instagram account has fallen silent.

Shortly after waking up to bombings, the couple briefly separated as her husband tended to his parents and Ellissa traveled toward the border with Poland.

On a video posted on Feb. 28, Ellissa’s mother Heidi Baird updated the thousands of followers.

“We have been very vague with our information for security reasons, but I can tell you that they are safe,” Baird said. “They have made it to where they need to go.”

It was later disclosed by the family that the couple was in Budapest, Hungary, although Ukraine is still under martial law.

Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country as it fights against the Russian invasion. It remains unclear under what circumstances Andrii was able to leave the country.

Baird later traveled from San Antonio to Budapest to reunite with her daughter and be present for the birth of her granddaughter.

On March 17, Baird update via an Instagram Reel.

“A quick update from Budapest, Hungary,” Baird said. “First off, everybody’s been asking, ‘Has Ellissa had her baby?’ She has not. So we are waiting patiently for this sweet little girl. She is past her due date by a few days.”

As of March 18, Ellissa has not yet given birth to her first-born.

“Just pray for Ellissa,” Baird said. “She’s obviously ready to birth, and so we just pray that all of that will go very well. She’s extremely comfortable with the hospital that she’ll be delivering (at), and she will have a midwife who will be in the room to help deliver.”

Baird said her son-in-law has helped other Ukranian refugees in Budapest.

“There have been hundreds of thousands of people who have crossed into Hungary. Many end up in Budapest, where we are,” Baird said. “Andrii has been an incredible big help to those refugees, because they don’t, a lot of them don’t speak English or Hungarian. So, he’s been such a comfort to them… to interpret for them and help them with the paperwork and help them get homes and food… God has him where he needs to be, and that’s been really incredible to watch.”

According to the family’s online fundraiser, the nearly $40,000 donated to the young couple has made it possible to cover lodging expenses as well as hospital bills for the delivery of their first-born.

The family continues to ask for prayers, especially for the baby as well as Andrii’s parents who have chosen to remain in Ukraine.

“They are safe at the moment,” Baird said. “They are on either side of the Capitol of Kiev. They are separated by the war. They cannot get together. They have had multiple opportunities to get out and come to the West. Andrii has been working on that for as long as this has been going on, but they refused (to leave). They want to stay where they are. They feel safe. And for the moment they are, but that can change any minute.”

A Bexar County sheriff’s deputy died this week after battling cancer, the sheriff’s office confirmed on social media.

Deputy Carlos Sifuentes, 59, passed away Wednesday, March 16. He spent 14 years with the sheriff’s office and was assigned to the detention bureau.

“Deputy Sifuentes was loved and respected by his family in blue and will greatly be missed,” BCSO said in a statement.

Visitation and funeral arrangements for Sifuentes are pending.

Federal regulators have fined USAA Federal Savings Bank $140 million for willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced Friday.

FinCEN said the bank admitted it “willfully failed to implement and maintain an anti‑money laundering (AML) program that met the minimum requirements of the BSA from at least January 2016 through April 2021.”

USAA admitted it failed to report thousands of suspicious transactions done by customers, including those using personal accounts for “apparent criminal activity.”

“Today’s action signals that growth and compliance must be paired, and AML (anti‑money laundering) program deficiencies, especially deficiencies identified by federal regulators, must be promptly and effectively addressed,” said Himamauli Das, acting director of FinCEN.

FinCEN says the bank will pay a total of $140 million to the U.S. Treasury. The total came from fines imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and FinCEN, which were $60 million and $80 million, respectively.

USAA issued the following statement to KSAT 12 News:

“This occurred because we did not sufficiently strengthen the capabilities and expertise necessary to meet BSA/AML requirements. We are working cooperatively with the OCC and will continue to do so.

“‘While the issues identified in these orders did not result in any individual member harm, we understand the importance of these requirements. Compliance is a top and urgent priority that is fundamental to providing our members with the highest level of service,’ USAA CEO Wayne Peacock said. ‘USAA has already made progress in many critical areas by investing in new systems and training, enhancing staffing and expertise, and improving our processes. And we have an unwavering commitment to the military community.’”

After administering more than 226,700 COVID-19 vaccine doses, the Alamodome mass vaccination site will close after Friday, March 25.

City officials decided to close the site, which has been in operation since January 2021, because of a decrease in people seeking to get vaccinated, a news release said.

“Organizing and operating the Alamodome vaccination site – one of the largest continually functioning vaccination sites in the state – has been a huge logistical undertaking,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. “And I am grateful for all those who rose to the occasion each day to meet the challenges of running this drive-thru clinic from the day we opened. The effective operation at the Alamodome is proof that we will be able to respond to future surges or similar situations if necessary.”

Metro Health will continue to offer COVID-19 vaccine pop-up clinics each week in neighborhoods throughout the city to ensure residents continue to have access to COVID-19 vaccines.

“We would like to thank everyone who visited the Alamodome drive-thru clinic to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and our community from this virus,” Metro Health Director Claude A. Jacob said. “I would also like to thank our fantastic staff and, in particular, Dr. Anita Kurian and her team for their tireless contributions in reaching this milestone. Metro Health wants to remind the community that we must continue to remain vigilant and encourage those who have yet to get vaccinated or boosted to please do so at any of our weekly vaccine pop-up clinics.”

Jacob said that through the combined vaccination efforts of community partners and Metro Health clinics, including the Alamodome mass vaccination site, 76.4% of residents ages 5 and older, are now fully vaccinated.

For a list of vaccine pop-up clinics and testing locations, visit covid19.sanantonio.gov or call 311 and select option 8.

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