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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Whistleblower Says He Could Have Prevented CA Attack If Gov't Didn't Cut DHS Funding  —  A former Homeland Security employee says he likely could have helped prevent the San Bernardino terror attack if the government had not pulled the plug on a surveillance program he was developing three years ago.

EXCLUSIVE: Video shows customer hit worker, break glass in NYC restaurant as he rails against Muslims; man kicks woman, calls her ‘trash’ in separate crime  —  A customer at a Herald Square restaurant burst into an anti-Muslim tirade, slapping one worker than busting glass partitions with a chair …

The 13 Women Who Accused A Cop Of Sexual Assault, In Their Own Words  —  The alleged victims of former Oklahoma City Police Officer Daniel Holtzclaw told their stories publicly for the first time last year in court.  Those testimonies have never been reported in full, until now.

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 …

Survey of Kentucky Residents on State Health Policy  —  Liz Hamel, Mira Norton, and Mollyann Brodie  —  Executive Summary  —  Kentucky has received national attention as the only Southern state to fully embrace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by creating its own state-based health insurance marketplace …

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 …

Donald Trump Really Doesn't Want Me to Tell You This, But ...  Over a long weekend on assignment for Playboy magazine, Mark Bowden found that behind the garish Trump façade lies only more ugliness.  —  I spent a long, awkward weekend with Donald Trump in November 1996 …

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.

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 …

Donald Trump has gone too far for French far-right leader Marine Le Pen  —  Donald Trump has been frequently compared (including by me) to “far-right” populist movements in Europe.  Indeed, scholarly experts on fascism say that this — rather than fascism — is the correct comparison to make about Trump.

Sharpton to host 2016 Democratic hopefuls at racial justice forum  —  Eat your heart out, Mayor Bill de Blasio.  —  The Rev. Al Sharpton says he is poised to pull off what the liberal mayor of New York City tried and failed to do - host a presidential forum for all three Democratic candidates …

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.

Ted Cruz using firm that harvested data on millions of unwitting Facebook users  —  Exclusive: Documents reveal donor-funded US startup embedded in Republican's campaign paid UK university academics to collect psychological profiles on potential voters  —  Ted Cruz's presidential campaign …