diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 0587f60c0a..6882fffe13 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ set(RDK_PYTHON_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/rdkit")
 set(RDKit_Year "2024")
 set(RDKit_Month "03")
 set(RDKit_Revision "1")
-set(RDKit_RevisionModifier "b1")
+set(RDKit_RevisionModifier "")
 set(RDKit_ABI "1")
 
 # we need an integer version of the month later, so remove the zero padding
diff --git a/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/CMakeLists.txt b/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/CMakeLists.txt
index 6cd0833a2f..58a8a3ebcc 100644
--- a/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -17,14 +17,16 @@ if (RDK_BUILD_FREETYPE_SUPPORT AND RDK_INSTALL_COMIC_FONTS)
         set(needDownload "FALSE")
     endif ()
     if (needDownload)
-        set(MD5Sum "b7fd0df73ad4637504432d72a0accb8f")
-        downloadAndCheckMD5("https://fonts.google.com/download?family=Comic%20Neue"
-                "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Comic_Neue.zip"
-                ${MD5Sum})
-        execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E tar x
-                ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/Comic_Neue.zip --format=zip
-                WORKING_DIRECTORY ${RDKit_DataDir}/Fonts)
+        # we started having problems with constantly changing MD5s on the zip file,
+        # so now we just check the MD5 of the target file
+        downloadAndCheckMD5("https://github.com/google/fonts/raw/main/ofl/comicneue/ComicNeue-Regular.ttf"
+                "${RDKit_DataDir}/Fonts/ComicNeue-Regular.ttf"
+                "fc1eac54b325542d4c133732658f823b")
+        downloadAndCheckMD5("https://github.com/google/fonts/raw/main/ofl/comicneue/OFL.txt"
+                "${RDKit_DataDir}/Fonts/OFL.txt"
+                "")
     endif (needDownload)
+
 endif ()
 
 rdkit_headers(MolDraw2D.h
diff --git a/ReleaseNotes.md b/ReleaseNotes.md
index 782795724c..25053be7e9 100644
--- a/ReleaseNotes.md
+++ b/ReleaseNotes.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Release_2024.03.1b1
+# Release_2024.03.1
 (Changes relative to Release_2023.09.1)
 
 ## Acknowledgements
@@ -11,12 +11,15 @@ Jan C. Brammer, Jessica Braun, Benoît Claveau, David Cosgrove, James Davidson,
 Hussein Faara, Théophile Gaudin, Gareth Jones, Christoph Hillisch, Tad Hurst,
 Kevin Keating, Brian Kelley, Joos Kiener, David Lounsbrough, Jeremy Monat, Dan
 Nealschneider, Yoshinobu Ogura, Marta Pasquini, Yakov Pechersky, Patrick Penner,
-Ricardo Rodriguez-Schmidt, Nate Russell, Ivan Tubert-Brohman, Matthew Seddon,
-Leonid Stolbov, Paolo Tosco, Riccardo Vianello, Franz Waibl, Rachel Walker,
-sitanshubhunia, skystreet8, dehaenw, dhibbit, vslashg, nbehrnd, MarioAndWario,
-levineds-meta
+Rachael Pirie, Ricardo Rodriguez-Schmidt, Nate Russell, Ivan Tubert-Brohman,
+Matthew Seddon, Leonid Stolbov, Paolo Tosco, Riccardo Vianello, Franz Waibl,
+Rachel Walker, sitanshubhunia, skystreet8, dehaenw, dhibbit, vslashg, nbehrnd,
+MarioAndWario, levineds-meta
 
 ## Highlights
+- An initial version of support for atropisomers has been added; this will be expanded in future releases.
+- Support for using multiple threads has been added in a few more places: many operations in rdMolStandardize, the fingerprint generators, and GetBestRMS()/GetAllConformerBestRMS()
+- The initial release of version 2 of the RDKit C++ API; we will continue to expand this in future releases. The new API makes it easier to write correct and memory safe code. The current API is still supported and will remain so for the forseeable future, but we encourage C++ developers to start using v2 of the API in their code.
 
 ## Backwards incompatible changes
 - Two changes to improve the defaults for conformer generation: the functions EmbedMolecule() and EmbedMultipleConfis() now use ETKDGv3 by default (previously they were using ETKDGV1) and only consider heavy atoms when calculating RMSD for conformer pruning (previously Hs were alos considered).
@@ -122,12 +125,16 @@ levineds-meta
  (github pull #7187 from greglandrum)
   - Don't reset computed properties if already empty
  (github pull #7188 from rachelnwalker)
+   - Enhance molzip to properly handle RGroupDecompositions
+ (github pull #7202 from bp-kelley)
   - Add some ExplicitBitVect operations to Swig
  (github pull #7204 from jones-gareth)
   - Some modernization of core GraphMol classes
  (github pull #7228 from greglandrum)
   - Custom decimal precision
  (github pull #7229 from PatrickPenner)
+  - Add Double Cubic Lattice Volume (DCLV).
+ (github pull #7234 from RPirie96)
   - feat(minilib): expose the options parameter in get_inchi
  (github pull #7240 from BenoitClaveau)
   - Postpone clearing computed properties until after all Hs removed
@@ -278,7 +285,11 @@ levineds-meta
  (github issue #7256 from ricrogz)
   - Writing StereoGroups to Mol files should break lines at 80 characters
  (github issue #7259 from ricrogz)
-
+  - Update ring fusion cache when needed
+ (github pull #7274 from ptosco)
+  - Ring stereo in SMILES inverted after sanitization in molecule with fragments
+ (github issue #7295 from greglandrum)
+  
 ## Cleanup work:
   - Switch over to using pytest to run the python tests
  (github pull #5916 from greglandrum)