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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.”

Mother shoots intruder who entered south side home through baby's window  —  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 …

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.

Brussels Attack Lapses Acknowledged by Belgian Officials  —  BRUSSELS — Belgium's justice and interior ministers acknowledged Thursday that the authorities had erred by not acting on Turkey's request last year that they take custody of a Belgian citizen arrested for suspected terrorist activity.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Davenport man protesting law that requires him to pay for another man's child … DAVENPORT, Iowa- A Quad City man is protesting a child support law that requires him to pay for another man's child.  —  Joe Vandusen thought it was a joke when he received a certified letter from the Iowa Department …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Apple's First Foray Into Original TV Is a Series About Apps  —  Apple's ambitions to go head to head with Netflix and create its own lineup of exclusive movies and TV shows has long been the subject of much chatter and speculation.  —  But its first original TV project …

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.

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 …

Dyson developing an electric car, according to government documents  —  The company last year refused to confirm they were working on a green vehicle, but a government plan on infrastructure suggests they are  —  Dyson is developing an electric car at its headquarters in Wiltshire with help …

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

Revisionaries  —  How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids' textbooks.  —  Don McLeroy is a balding, paunchy man with a thick broom-handle mustache who lives in a rambling two-story brick home in a suburb near Bryan, Texas.  When he greeted me at the door one evening last October …

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.