Ben Carson blasts RNC, threatens to leave Republican Party  —  Ben Carson on Friday blasted the Republican National Committee following a Washington Post report that nearly two-dozen establishment party figures were prepping for a potential brokered convention as Donald Trump continues to lead most polls.

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 …

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 …

Poll: Solid opposition to ban on Muslims entering U.S.  —  Nearly six-in-10 Americans say the United States should not temporarily bar Muslims from other countries from entering the U.S., and two-thirds say such a ban would go against the founding principles of this country, a CBS News poll shows.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

WATCH: Carly Fiorina snarls at CNN host after he confronts her over Planned Parenthood smears  —  DON'T MISS STORIES.  FOLLOW RAW STORY!  —  Aspiring 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina went from smiling to combative in a split-second during a contentious debate …

AS TRUMP RISES, CLINTON PREACHES LOVE AND KINDNESS  —  URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — Hillary Clinton had just finished detailing the dangers of terrorism, recalling tough calls in the White House situation room as secretary of state and lashing out at her Republican rivals for threatening the safety of Americans.

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 …

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.

Charles Barkley bashes CNN, Donald Trump  —  Basketball legend, Turner Sports commentator and “NBA on TNT” co-host Charles Barkley ripped into his employer's sister channel CNN for its coverage of the 2016 election.  —  Barkley's comments came on “Inside the NBA” when host Ernie Johnson asked Barkley …

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.

Priest paid his male ‘sex master’ from collection plate: lawsuit  —  A Catholic priest swiped collection-plate donations to pay for drug-fueled sex romps with a heavily muscled S&M “master,” a new lawsuit charges.  —  Parishioners claim the Rev. Peter Miqueli has stolen at least $1 million since 2003 …

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.