GOP preparing for contested convention  —  Republican officials and leading figures in the party's establishment are now preparing for the possibility of a brokered convention as Donald Trump continues sit atop the polls and the presidential race.  —  More than 20 of them convened Monday …

San Bernardino shooters planned bigger attack, investigators believe  —  An FBI dive team on Thursday searches for electronic devices or other evidence possibly left in Seccombe Lake, about two miles north of the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.  —  An examination of digital equipment recovered …

Democrats demand end to ban on gun violence research  —  House Democrats are adding a controversial new demand to the government funding talks: ending a 19-year old ban on gun violence research by the federal government.  —  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday …

Jury: Former Oklahoma City police officer found guilty on 18 counts  —  OKLAHOMA CITY - After listening to several weeks of testimony and four days of deliberating, a jury has found a former Oklahoma City police officer accused of sex crimes guilty on 18 counts.

Empowering the Ugliness  —  We live in an era of political news that is, all too often, shocking but not surprising.  The rise of Donald Trump definitely falls into that category.  And so does the electoral earthquake that struck France in Sunday's regional elections, with the right-wing …

Trump: I will mandate death penalty for killing police officers  —  Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to issue an executive order to mandate the death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer.  —  “One of the first things I'd do in terms of executive order …

Camille Paglia Takes on Taylor Swift, Hollywood's #GirlSquad Culture  —  Can group selfies advance women's goals?  In an essay for The Hollywood Reporter, the famed feminist urges social media packs to skip the “tittering, tongues-out mugging of Taylor Swift” — whose “twinkly persona …

Colorado ACLU Board Member: Shoot Trump Voters ‘Before Election Day’  —  Loring Wirbel, board member of the American Civil Liberties Union's Colorado chapter and co-chair of the ACLU's Colorado Springs chapter, called for supporters of GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump to be shot before they vote for the billionaire businessman.

The Court Takes Up One Person, One Vote  —  On its face, the constitutional doctrine of “one person one vote” seems about as clear as they come: no one's vote should count more than anyone else's.  —  In practice this means all state legislative districts must contain roughly equal numbers of people.

Is Affirmative Action Finished?  —  “If this Court rules that the University of Texas can't consider race, or if it rules that universities that consider race have to die a death of a thousand cuts for doing so, we know exactly what's going to happen,” Gregory Garre, the lawyer for the University of Texas …

Putin's Quagmire in Syria Proves Obama Prescient  —  Officials in Moscow no longer talking about war lasting months  —  Russia's mid-November surge doubled cost of military campaign  —  U.S. President Barack Obama, facing criticism at home over his Islamic State strategy …

Thematic Convergence, or Real Old Testament Stuff...  Rare is the day when we find a smidgen of insight at Vox.  Rarer still is the day that the Voxsplainers and Glenn Reynolds are aligned in agreement.  —  This is that day.  Glenn, picking up a theme noted by Sen. Ben Sasse in San Bernardino …

Are Democrats Trying to Establish a Right To Immigrate to US?  —  Foreigners have no right to emigrate to the United States.  How many immigrants we want to take in, and who those immigrants should be, are issues decided by us in our sole discretion, through our political process.

Democratic Congresswoman: “Between 5 And 20%” Of Muslims Willing To Use Terrorism To Institute Caliphate  —  “We know that there is a small group, and we don't know how big that is — it can be anywhere between 5 and 20%, from the people that I speak to — that Islam is their religion …

House report: Obama officials misled public on Bergdahl swap  —  A yearlong investigation by the House Armed Services Committee has concluded that the Obama administration broke the law in swapping five Taliban members for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl — and went out of its way to hide the negotiations as they were happening.

Empowering People to Help People: Why I am Joining GoFundMe  —  In late 2006, I found myself unexpectedly unemployed and looking for a job.  That's when I met Barack Obama who was starting to put together a team to launch an improbable run for the White House.