memeorandum: Young teen in custody, elderly woman safe after bizarre theft and chase (WGN Web Desk/WGN-TV)

4:55 PM ET, March 24, 2016

Top Items:

Alex Stedman / Variety:

Garry Shandling Dies at 66 (Report) — Comedian, actor, writer and producer Garry Shandling, known for “It's Garry Shandling's Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” has died, TMZ reported on Thursday. — He died at an L.A. hospital on Thursday, according to the outlet. A cause of death has not been released.

Garry Shandling / TMZ.com:

Dead at 66 — Comedian Garry Shandling died at an L.A. area hospital on Thursday ... TMZ has learned. — The 66-year-old star was not suffering from any illness ... as far as we know ... so, it appears this was sudden. A source connected to Shandling says he was healthy and speaking to people on Thursday morning.

Discussion: FOX5 San Diego, WHNT-TV, FOX6Now.com, Mashable and Oliver Willis

Telegraph:

World's oldest living animal, 184-year-old tortoise named Jonathan, has first ever bath — A giant tortoise living on the British outpost of St Helena is given a clean-up ahead of Royal visit. — The world's oldest living animal, a 184-year-old giant tortoise, has had its first ever bath.

Discussion: Fox 59, Mashable and AOL

Nick Gass / Politico:

Obama's tango ripped on ‘Morning Joe’ — On Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama danced the tango at a state dinner in Argentina. By the next morning, a bipartisan chorus of disapproval of the optics was bursting out on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.”

Discussion: RedState, Taylor Marsh, Yahoo Politics, Hot Air, WND, PerezHilton, The Week, Mother Jones and New York Magazine

Daily Mail: Twinkle-toes Obama might be a demon at the tango but when it comes to reading the public mood he's tone-deaf

Laura Wagner / NPR:
WATCH: Obama Dances The Tango During State Dinner In Argentina

Discussion: Post On Politics, American Spectator, AOL and New York Times

Rob Price / Business Insider:

Microsoft is deleting its AI chatbot's incredibly racist tweets — Microsoft's new AI chatbot went off the rails Wednesday, posting a deluge of incredibly racist messages in response to questions. — The tech company introduced “Tay” this week — a bot that responds to users' queries …

Discussion: Raw Story, Fusion, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Althouse, CNNMoney, Vox, Daily Mail, Engadget and Slate

Abby Ohlheiser / Washington Post:

Trolls turned Tay, Microsoft's fun millennial AI bot, into a genocidal maniac — It took mere hours for the Internet to transform Tay, the teenage AI bot who wants to chat with and learn from millennials, into Tay, the racist and genocidal AI bot who liked to reference Hitler. And now Tay is taking a break.

Discussion: Guardian, Refinery29, The Verge and The Right Scoop

Justin Sink / Bloomberg Business:

Democrats Evenly Split Over Clinton, Sanders in Bloomberg Poll — Sanders trusted on defending middle class, reining in Wall St. — Clinton stronger on foreign policy, security experience — More than halfway through a nomination race that she entered as the clear favorite …

Discussion: The Hill, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Politicus USA, Washington Post, naked capitalism, Talk Media News, Hot Air, Washington Times, Common Dreams and The Week

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg Business:
Donald Trump's Tough But Plausible Path to Winning the White House

Discussion: Washington Post

Eric Fehrnstrom / BostonGlobe.com: Turnout, terror, and tactics favor Trump against Clinton

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Shadow campaign to deny Trump his delegates begins — When South Dakota's Republican activists convened in Pierre to pick their delegates to the Republican National Convention, they got an unexpected visitor. — Merle Madrid, senior aide to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, had flown in from Columbus …

Discussion: NBC News, ABC News, National Review, Daily Kos and WND

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Graham: Kasich is better candidate than Cruz — but can't win

Discussion: The Bob and Chez Show

Andrew Rafferty / NBC News:

Ted Cruz: Trump is a ‘Sniveling Coward’ — Ted Cruz called Donald Trump a “sniveling coward” and told him to leave his wife “the hell alone” on Thursday after Trump tweeted an unflattering photo of his spouse, Heidi Cruz. — “It's not easy to tick me off.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs

Christopher Massie / BuzzFeed:
Trump-Backing Congressman: “Many Members Are Supporting Trump Quietly”

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Todd Starnes / Fox News:
Why I believe Ted Cruz is religious liberty's only hope

Discussion: Right Wing Watch

Sandhya Somashekhar / Washington Post:

Backlash builds against N.C. law on transgender bathroom use — North Carolina on Wednesday passed a sweeping law overturning gay and transgender protections at the local level and requiring students to use restrooms that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates.

Discussion: governor.nc.gov, The Charlotte Observer, The Huffington Post, Human Rights Campaign, Talking Points Memo, ACLU of North Carolina, New York Times, Hot Air, NBC News, Forbes, CNN, Common Dreams, The Slot, Shakesville and Daily Kos

Michelangelo Signorile / The Huffington Post:
How North Carolina Just Passed a Blood-Curdling Anti-LGBT Law Right Before Our Eyes

Discussion: Guardian, The Atlantic, The New Civil Rights Movement, Human Rights Campaign, The Daily Caller, News, Indy Week and Towleroad

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
North Carolina Overturns LGBT-Discrimination Bans

Discussion: Slate, ThinkProgress and Vox

Matt Adams / Fox 59:

Mother shoots intruder during attempted home invasion on Indy's south side — INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (March 24, 2016) - A homeowner shot an intruder who tried to break into her Indianapolis home Thursday afternoon. — According to police dispatchers, officers received the call around 12:10 p.m …

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:

GOP Sen.: ‘Not Fair’ Of GOPers To Block Any SCOTUS Nominee — Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on Wednesday said that she doesn't believe it is fair of Republican senators to block any Supreme Court nominee from President Obama. — “I think it's simply not fair and not right to say that no matter …

Discussion: news.mpbn.net, Daily Kos and The Week

Justin Sink / Bloomberg Business:
Biden Says Stalemate Over Garland Risks Constitutional Crisis

Discussion: ABC News

New York Times:

In N.F.L., Deeply Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Big Tobacco — The National Football League was on the clock. — With several of its marquee players retiring early after a cascade of frightening concussions, the league formed a committee in 1994 that would ultimately issue …

Discussion: New York Magazine, CBS Chicago, ProFootballTalk, The Week, Dallas Morning News, CBS Boston, abc13.com, Deadspin and The Verge

Amber Phillips / Washington Post:

You know you're in trouble when you say what Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley just said — Trump loves to say these ‘facts.’ Here's where he's wrong. … State of the 2016 race — In the hours after a former friend and fired top cop told the media he could prove Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley …

Discussion: al.com, Washington Monthly, Gawker, The Stranger …, New York Times, Raw Story, Politico, The Daily Caller and Political Wire

Thomas Burrows / Daily Mail:

A PR boss who asked a Muslim woman to ‘explain Brussels’ has been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred. — Matthew Doyle, an LSE alumnus and partner at a south London-based talent agency, sparked outrage on social media after he ‘confronted’ a Muslim woman about the Brussels attacks which killed 34 people.

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, The Daily Caller, Metro.co.uk, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Infowars, The Verge and Guardian

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

Trumpism After Trump — There is now no possibility that the Republican Party will survive its rendezvous with Donald Trump unbroken. — If Trump is the party's nominee, the best-case scenario — the best case! — for G.O.P. unity probably involves a host of Republican officials withholding …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Balloon Juice

EndPlay / WSOC-TV:

Concord man arrested for not returning VHS rental 14 years later — CONCORD, N.C. — A Concord man was arrested for failing to return a 2002 VHS rental movie, “Freddy Got Fingered.” — James Meyers showed Channel 9 the arrest warrant Wednesday. It shows Meyers is charged with failure to return rental property, a misdemeanor.

Discussion: Mediaite, KFOR-TV, Mashable, The Daily Caller, AOL, Raw Story, Consumerist and WWAY-TV

TMZ.com:

Madonna — Busted For Posting Fake Signs to Hoard NYC Parking Spaces — BUSTED FOR POSTING FAKE SIGNS — To Hoard NYC Parking Spaces

Discussion: Gothamist, PerezHilton, CBS New York and Page Six

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:

Trump the loser — A great truth was told when Elizabeth Warren — on Monday, branding him a loser. In her Twitter offensive, the senator labeled Trump an insecure narcissist with a list of failures in business who often demonstrates a problem respecting women and is — she repeated multiple times in tweets — a loser.

Sabato's Crystal Ball:

Assessing Trump's Path to 1,237 — A look at the remaining contests shows how he could get there — About a month ago, after Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary and all of its delegates, we headlined a piece “The Hour is Growing Late to Stop Trump.”

Discussion: Washington Post

Yanan Wang / Washington Post:

Ga. parents offended by the ‘Far East religion’ of yoga, get ‘Namaste’ banned from school — “We need to direct our attention inward and connect to the breath,” yoga instructor Rachel Brathen writes in her New York Times best-selling book about the practice.

Discussion: WXIA-TV and Talking Points Memo

Sarah Smith / ProPublica:

Wisconsin's Voter ID Law Requires an Education Campaign, Which the State Hasn't Funded — On April 5, when voters cast ballots in Wisconsin's Republican and Democratic primaries, the state's controversial voter ID bill will face its biggest test since Governor Scott Walker signed it into law in 2011.

Discussion: AMERICAblog NewsAMERICAblog …

Science:

Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome — 1J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. — 2National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. — 3Synthetic Genomics, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.

Discussion: Daily Mail, The Atlantic, Quanta Magazine, The Verge, NPR, The San Diego Union …, Mashable and Washington Post

Nicole Sperling / EW.com:

WONDER WOMAN EXCLUSIVE: MEET THE WARRIOR WOMEN TRAINING DIANA PRINCE — Themyscira is a hidden island where Amazon women of Greek myth have thrived for centuries, living in harmony and free to self-govern away from the gaze of man. It's also, of course, the birthplace of Wonder Woman …

Discussion: Fusion, Comicbook.com and Birth.Movies.Death

Helena Horton / Telegraph:

Microsoft's ‘teen girl’ AI turns into a Hitler-loving sex robot within 24 hours — What happens when you introduce an innocent Artificial Intelligence chat robot to Twitter? Well, it's kind of predictable - you get an evil Hitler-loving, incestual sex-promoting, 'Bush did 9/11'-proclaiming robot.

Discussion: WND, Business Insider and Moe Lane

Camille Paglia / Salon:

This is why Trump's winning, and why I won't vote for Hillary — GOP needs to wake up and realize Trump is its fault. But the Trump/Clinton death match is a national nightmare — This week's horrific terrorist attacks on the Brussels airport and metro raised the pressure in the already tight U.S. presidential campaign.

Discussion: Maggie's Farm

WGN Web Desk / WGN-TV:

Young teen in custody, elderly woman safe after bizarre theft and chase — Share Update: … PARK RIDGE, Ill. - A 14-year-old boy is in custody after a car chase became a kidnapping and then a police pursuit that left an officer injured in the Chicago suburbs.

Discussion: KFOR-TV