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CBS News poll: Trump maintains commanding lead over GOP field — Donald Trump (35 percent) continues to hold a commanding lead over the rest of the field, with a 17 point lead over his closest rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (18 percent). John Kasich (11 percent) has now risen to a virtual third-place tie with Marco Rubio (12 percent).
Discussion:
Politico, Political Wire and USA Today
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MSNBC's Town Hall With Donald Trump Was Disgraceful — The media's coverage of Trump has been soft, insufficient, and without substance. — Is Donald Trump in trouble? After facing hostile questions from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Wednesday night—they comprehensively laid out his flip-flops …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast and Mother Jones

CBS News poll: The next Supreme Court justice, Obama, and the economy — The U.S. Supreme Court — With an unexpected vacancy on the Supreme Court as a result of Justice Antonin Scalia's death, it's unclear if he will be replaced before the November election.
Discussion:
Politico, mprnews.org, NBC News, Outside the Beltway, Political Wire and Washington Post


Donald Trump Falls Behind Ted Cruz in National NBC/WSJ Poll — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has fallen behind Ted Cruz in the national GOP horserace, according to a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. — In the poll, Cruz is the first choice of 28 percent …
Discussion:
CNN, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, MSNBC, Refinery29, AOL, The Week, The Last Refuge, Bloomberg Business, National Review, Hot Air, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, New York Magazine, Washington Post, The Right Scoop, Conservative Review, New York Times, RedState, Fox News, The Moderate Voice, Mediaite, TPNN, Florida Politics and The Daily Caller


Trump: I'll be ‘neutral’ on Israel and Palestine — GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to pick sides in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. — “You know, I don't want to get into it,” he told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski during a MSNBC town hall in Charleston, S.C.
Discussion:
Hot Air


Trump Mistakenly Thinks Description Of Sanders Is About Himself (VIDEO) — During a Wednesday night town hall moderated by MSNBC's “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski described a “political outsider” candidate, and Donald Trump incorrectly guessed that she was describing himself.


Trump leads Republican field nationally by more than 20 points: poll
Discussion:
Power Line

Ted Cruz Overtakes Donald Trump in Latest Republican Presidential Poll
Discussion:
Power Line, The Week, Mother Jones, RedState and The Resurgent

Rubio holds ‘town halls’ — with no audience questions
Discussion:
Associated Press, Slantpoint, American Bridge PAC and Talking Points Memo

Haley endorses Rubio for president
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys, Florida Politics, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, FiveThirtyEight, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, Talking Points Memo, National Review, American Spectator, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CNN, Rush Limbaugh, Power Line, RedState, Roll Call, Taylor Marsh, Post and Courier, Independent Journal Review and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Bush struggles to mask mounting frustration
Discussion:
Washington Post, National Review, Guardian, BostonGlobe.com, Hot Air, Florida Politics, RedState and ABC News


Controversy Erupts At A T14 Law School Over How (Or Even Whether) To Mourn Justice Scalia — How should one respond to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a controversial figure within the law? One can imagine a range of possible reactions, from mourning and tributes to criticism …
Discussion:
Althouse, Instapundit, Campus Reform, The Daily Caller and The College Fix
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White House: Obama ‘regrets’ his filibuster of Supreme Court nominee — President Obama “regrets” filibustering the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in 2006, his top spokesman said Wednesday, though he maintains that the Republican opposition to his effort to replace Justice Antonin Scalia is unprecedented.
Discussion:
Politico, CNBC, Power Line, The Daily Signal, The Week and CNN


The Republicans' Scalia Hysteria — A half-century ago, the brilliant British comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe produced “The End of the World,” a skit in which a group of cultists gather atop a mountain to greet the Apocalypse, prophesied for that very day. “Now is the end!” they chant.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather and New York Times

Ranch owner clarifies how he found Scalia amid conspiracy theories
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, Friendly Atheist, AOL, Talking Points Memo, The Week, NBC News, The Atlantic, USA Today, Right Wing Watch and Mashable


Summing Up Scalia — Getting right to the point:
Discussion:
Balkinization

Literal Holy Crap: Glenn Beck Says Scalia's Death Part of God's Plan to Elect Ted Cruz
Discussion:
CNN, addictinginfo.org and Raw Story

Sandra Day O'Connor: Obama should name Scalia's replacement
Discussion:
addictinginfo.org, Slantpoint and The Week

Glenn Beck: God Brought About Scalia's Death So America Would Vote For Ted Cruz
Discussion:
Betsy's Page, The Last Refuge, Mediaite and Washington Post

Call for Obama to delay supreme court nomination is ‘absurd’, say legal scholars
Discussion:
Raw Story, New York Times and Refinery29

Supreme Court Vacancy Has Left and Right Ready to Pounce
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Salon, ABC News, Common Dreams, Toledo Blade and Daily Kos


Apple can comply with the FBI court order — Earlier today, a federal judge ordered Apple to comply with the FBI's request for technical assistance in the recovery of the San Bernadino gunmen's iPhone 5C. Since then, many have argued whether these requests from the FBI are technically feasible given …
Discussion:
Guardian, Vox, Washington Post, TechCrunch, ACLU, New York Magazine, The Next Web, Mashable, Niskanen Center, The Daily Caller, CNN, New York Times, Mediaite, Paste, The Resurgent, Business Insider, The Verge, The San Diego Union …, Hit & Run, Techdirt, NPR, Common Dreams, fox13now.com, Raw Story, MacRumors, The Atlantic, Daily Kos, Slantpoint and Mother Jones
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Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before
Discussion:
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Washington Post, Slantpoint, Defense One, New York Times, Infowars, Investor's Business Daily, The Week, blog maverick, New York Magazine, Mashable, CBS Boston, Mother Jones, Fox News, VentureBeat, Ars Technica UK, LawNewz, The Verge, The People's View, alec.org, protein wisdom, Associated Press, Politico, NPR, The Atlantic and The San Diego Union …


Mainstream G.O.P. Field of Three Faces Brutal Delegate Math — If the Republican Party remains divided for much longer, it will start getting more difficult for a mainstream candidate to win the nomination. — Yet Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and John Kasich all have incentives to stay in the race …


'Don't f-k with me': Hear Kanye's uncensored ‘SNL’ meltdown — Kanye West blasted Taylor Swift as a “fake ass” and called NBC staffers “white m— s” during his epic meltdown backstage at “Saturday Night Live. In an audio clip exclusively obtained by Page Six, Kanye can be heard repeatedly yelling at …
Discussion:
CBS Philly, TMZ.com, Fox News Insider, Mashable, Gothamist, Consequence of Sound, The Daily Caller, Refinery29 and Just Jared


Pope Francis Rips Capitalism, American Immigration Policy at Mexican Border — Pope Francis, apparently desperate to reach out to the Catholic Church's growing base in Latin America, spent the day slapping Americans in the face from across the US-Mexico border.


Graham: GOP will get ‘slaughtered’ if Trump nominee — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) argued Wednesday that if Donald Trump is the GOP nominee, Republicans will get “slaughtered” in the November election. — Lambasting the outspoken Republican front-runner as an “opportunist,” …
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Trump: Lindsey Graham a ‘disgrace,’ ‘nut job,’ ‘one of the dumbest human beings’
Discussion:
Yahoo Politics, MARK-CM and Trail Blazers Blog


Obama ‘Hope’ designer endorses Sanders — Artist and activist Shepard Fairey, who designed the iconic “Hope” poster during then-Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, is backing Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. — “I'm supporting Bernie Sanders …


A Crank of the Far Right? — I have been vaguely aware of Milo Yiannopoulos for a while. He is a gay Brit who works for Breitbart News. Lately he has been embroiled in controversy on Twitter and on college campuses, but I hadn't paid enough attention to know what the fuss was about.
Discussion:
Star Tribune