The GOP frontrunner: Donald Trump?  —  Trump leads the GOP pack this week, though few think he will win the nomination  —  The Republican horserace continues to be a contest of multiple candidates - with frontrunners sometimes ahead by only a few points, and no one dominating the race.

Pelosi ambushes GOP with Confederate flag resolution  —  The House voted Thursday to refer legislation banning the Confederate flag image from the Capitol to a committee, effectively punting the issue.  —  The dramatic vote was forced by Minority Leader  —  Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) …

Lost Girls … In 1974, when she was only 14, Jackie Fuchs would wake up way before her parents and catch a ride with friends from her house in the San Fernando Valley across the Santa Monica Mountains and into Malibu.  She'd hit the beach and paddle out in the quiet, pre-dawn dark.

HEY LOOK THE MOST NIGHTMARISH IDEA FOR PLANE SEATING EVER  —  Flying economy is terrible.  TSA checkpoints, crap food (or no food at all, which might be better), middle seats.  But things can always get worse, thanks to airlines desperate to crank up profits by cramming as many of us into the cabin as possible.

N.Y. Times keeps Cruz off bestseller list  —  The New York Times informed HarperCollins this week that it will not include Ted Cruz's new biography on its forthcoming bestsellers list, despite the fact that the book has sold more copies in its first week than all but two of the Times' bestselling titles, the On Media blog has learned.

Updated Controls for News Feed  —  News Feed is a personalized stream of stories that you build from the people and Pages you've connected to on Facebook.  The goal of News Feed is to show you the stories that matter most to you.  To do this, we use ranking to order stories based …

OPM Announces More Than 21 Million Affected by Second Data Breach  —  The federal personnel agency finally announced Thursday the scope of a massive hack of security-clearance information first revealed last month.  —  More than 21 million Social Security numbers were compromised in a breach …

Schumer calls for ban on gun-shaped iPhone cases  —  Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is raising alarm about the sale of iPhone cases that are made to look like the handle of a 9 mm handgun.  —  In letters to online retailers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the senator said the product …

Jeb Bush and longer working hours: gaffesplainer 2016  —  Jeb Bush's stated goal of 4 percent annual GDP growth, though unrealistic, in general sounds nice.  But during a New Hampshire Union Leader interview live-streamed on Periscope, Bush got granular about his plan, revealing that part …

Democrats 2016: Not Feeling the Bern  —  Despite big crowds, Sanders remains a huge underdog to Clinton  —  The Buzz about Bernie has taken hold on the Democratic side of the 2016 campaign, and it's easy to see why.  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is drawing huge crowds and great poll numbers …

Florida Supreme Court orders new congressional map with eight districts to be redrawn  —  TALLAHASSEE — In a precedent-setting ruling Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the state's congressional districts drawn by the GOP-led Legislature and ordered a new map with eight districts redrawn in time for the 2016 election.

Purple-State Republicans and the Two Electorates  —  Anybody who's read my book on the 2014 elections can surely appreciate my enthusiasm for an analysis of the GOP presidential field offered today by Bloomberg Politics' Ken Goldstein, which looks at the candidates' record of “electability” …