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11:50 AM ET, March 17, 2016

Top Items:

David Montgomery / Twin Cities:

Candid Marco Rubio blasts Trump and media, calls Cruz ‘only conservative left in the race’ — Former presidential candidate Marco Rubio told a group of Minnesota supporters Wednesday he is hoping one of the remaining candidates for president will stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination.

Discussion: Politico, RedState, New York Times, Infowars and LifeNews.com

Zach Carter / The Huffington Post:

Donald Trump Got More Votes In Ohio Than Hillary Clinton — Democrats still have a turnout problem. — Tuesday was a very good day for Hillary Clinton. She swept primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in five states, effectively ending his chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Slantpoint

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Democrats sound alarm against Trump — PHOENIX — Leading liberals and progressive groups are turning their gaze away from the Democratic primary and toward efforts to unite the left against Donald Trump, framing him as a dangerous and unprecedented candidate who poses an existential threat to the progressive movement and the nation.

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
Stop “helping” Hillary: Sorry, guys, but Clinton doesn't need to smile, whisper, or have John Kasich as her running mate

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post and Daily Kos

New York Times:
With Marco Rubio Out, Ted Cruz Confronts a New Foe in John Kasich

Discussion: Politico, The Gateway Pundit, Political Wire, CNN, New York Magazine, The Last Tradition and The San Diego Union …

Mike Sunnucks / Phoenix Business Journal:
New Arizona poll: Trump, Clinton lead but ample undecideds

Discussion: The Right Scoop, The Pulse 2016, Shadowproof and Politico

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:

How Obama Threw A Curveball With The Safest SCOTUS Pick Imaginable — President Obama's choice of Merrick Garland to succeed justice Scalia on the Supreme Court was not the nominee progressives were dreaming of a month ago, when Scalia's unexpected death opened up a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the Supreme Court.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Daily Kos, AOL and Fox News Insider

Brian Beutler / New Republic:

Why Would Obama Nominate an Old White Guy to the Supreme Court? — There are a few reasons. Political calculation isn't one of them. — President Barack Obama's decision to nominate Merrick Garland, a 63-year-old white moderate and perennial short-lister, to the Supreme Court …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Harper Neidig / The Hill:
No hearing for Obama's Supreme Court nominee, McConnell says

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Vox, Politico, TPNN, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, Yahoo Politics, Forbes, Keen News Service, Slate, Reuters, Cruz for President, hatch.senate.gov, New York Times, ABC News and Western Journalism

New York Times:
A Supreme Court With Merrick Garland Would Be the Most Liberal in Decades

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Free Beacon, Balloon Juice, Politico, Investor's Business Daily, Vox, The Daily Signal, The Atlantic, The Week and Grist

Associated Press:
Analysis: Obama Dares GOP to Let Clinton, Trump Pick Justice

Discussion: Politico, abc13.com and ABC News

Rose Garden / The White House:
Remarks by the President Announcing Judge Merrick Garland as his Nominee to the Supreme Court

Discussion: Investor's Business Daily, The Atlantic, New York Times, Hot Air, ThinkProgressPage Array, Washington Monthly, The Mahablog and Washington Post

Paul Watson / Infowars:

How the GOP Elite Plan To Rob Donald Trump — Cleveland, ladies and gentlemen, won't be for the faint of heart — Shhhh. I've just come from a meeting of the Republican Establishment. You know, those guys who want to replace what the voters want with what they want. That Republican Establishment.

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Wild card for Trump: Who gets to be a convention delegate? — Why Trump isn't a sure bet to win the nomination … With the increasingly loud talk of a contested Republican convention, the obscure process of picking who actually gets to be a delegate is about to get underway in states across the country …

Discussion: Betsy's Page and New York Times

A.B. Stoddard / The Hill: GOP reality check: Trump or convention fight

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
Republicans Enter a Shadow Campaign to Sew Up Delegates

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and AOL

Joel Manby / Los Angeles Times:

Op-Ed SeaWorld CEO: We're ending our orca breeding program. Here's why. — A killer whale raises its head out of the water during the first show since an orca killed a trainer at the SeaWorld theme park in Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 27, 2010. — Americans' attitudes about orcas have changed dramatically.

Discussion: USA Today, The Huffington Post, Orange County Register, CNN, Mother Jones, Common Dreams, Mediaite, The San Diego Union …, Fusion, New York Times, NBC News, Mashable, WCMH-TV and The Week

CNN:

John Kerry: ISIS responsible for genocide — (CNN)Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the United States has determined that ISIS' action against the Yazidis and other minority groups in Iraq and Syria constitutes genocide. — “My purpose here today is to assert in my judgment …

Discussion: Politico, The Jawa Report, Independent Journal Review, Allen B. West, The Week and Washington Free Beacon

Fox News:

Kerry declares ISIS committing genocide against Christians, others — Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday he's determined the Islamic State is committing genocide against Christians and other minorities in the Middle East, after facing heavy pressure from lawmakers and rights groups to make the rare designation.

Discussion: Hot Air

Fox News:
Clinton tried to change rules to use BlackBerry in secure facility for classified information

Discussion: Power Line

Eli Lake / BloombergView.com:

Cruz Assembles an Unlikely Team of Foreign-Policy Rivals — In a year when the Republican Party is breaking apart because of Donald Trump, the only man left with a chance to beat him is trying to build a big tent — by GOP standards — when it comes to foreign affairs.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, New York Magazine and The Week

Danielle Kreutter / KKTV-TV:

Facebook Post Leads To Police Ticket — An important lesson to be careful about what you post on Facebook and other public sites. One local man ended up getting a ticket after a video he posted on Facebook was viewed by police. — Michael Dalton told 11 News he loves making Facebook videos in his free time.

Discussion: WNEP-TV

Bloomberg Business:

Ginsberg Warns of ‘Political Guerilla Warfare’ at Contested GOP Convention — The expert in delegate fights sees a long slog ahead for the Republican front-runner. — haddadmedia — With prospects for the first contested Republican convention in 40 years on the rise …

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

Updated, 10:54 a.m., to add new observations based on reader response. — Bernie Sanders supporters have been unhappy with The Times in recent months, but it looked as if they were beginning to have their moment in the sun on Monday morning. — An article by Jennifer Steinhauer …

Discussion: Mediaite and Rolling Stone, more at Mediagazer »

Apkyletexas / RedState:

Cruz - “I will bring debate to Trump at AIPAC” — “If You Won't Debate In Utah, We'll Bring The Debate To You” — The Ted Cruz campaign released a statement today, saying that Cruz will bring the debate to Trump at the AIPAC conference if Trump is too scared to debate Cruz in Utah.

Discussion: Washington Post

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:

Trump Appears To Have Heavily Plagiarized Op-Ed From Carson — An op-ed penned this month by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and published online appears to be blatantly plagiarized from an article written days earlier under former rival Ben Carson's name, The Daily Caller has determined.

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, Yahoo! News, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Politico, New York Magazine, RedState, Raw Story, Mediaite and Mother Jones

Kristin Salaky / Talking Points Memo:
Carson: You Have To Admit Trump Calling Me A Child Molester ‘Did Work’

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and Daily Kos

news.nike.com:

NIKE HYPERADAPT 1.0 MANIFESTS THE UNIMAGINABLE — “Innovation at Nike is not about dreaming of tomorrow. It's about accelerating toward it,” says Tinker Hatfield. “We're able to anticipate the needs of athletes because we know them better than anybody. Sometimes, we deliver a reality before others have even begun to imagine it.”

Discussion: Refinery29, The Next Web, Slantpoint, Investor's Business Daily, Engadget, Racked, VentureBeat, The Verge, Mashable and Mediaite

Peggy Lee / WNEP-TV:

Nun Charged with Shoplifting Coffee, Soap … BRIAR CREEK — State police in Columbia County say they nabbed a very unlikely thief: a nun. — Troopers tracked the nun at her convent in Danville after she allegedly shoplifted from a store. — Workers at the Surplus Outlet near Berwick …

Discussion: Associated Press

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

Sean Hannity: If GOP Elites Steal Nomination from Trump or Cruz, “I'm Walking” (VIDEO) — Conservative Sean Hannity announced Wednesday that if Republican Party elites try to steal the nomination from Donald Trump or Ted Cruz at the convention. … The post Sean Hannity …

Discussion: TPNN

Michael Grunwald / Politico:

What We Missed About Rubio — In February 2013, Senator Marco Rubio let me sit in on the politics course he taught part time at Florida International University. He knew I was writing a cover story about him for Time magazine, but he still gave his students a master class in self-promotion in my presence …

Matt Bai / Yahoo Politics:

How Kasich became National Republican Grownup — Normally, it wouldn't be a very big deal for a popular two-term governor to win a presidential primary in his own state, especially if it's the first of 29 states (and a couple of territories) he's actually won.

Discussion: Philadelphia Magazine, CBS News, Right Wing Watch and Bloomberg Politics