Top Items:
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:
Hullabaloo, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Stranger …, The Week, The Verge, PerezHilton, Fox 59, WLS-AM 890, Mashable and FOX6Now.com
RELATED:
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.
Discussion:
New York's PIX11, NBC News, New Urban Legends, The Stranger … and PerezHilton
Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Trump revs up Heidi Cruz attacks — over the Republican presidential rival's wife after she slammed his statements for having “no basis in reality.” — Trump shared an image on Twitter around midnight Wednesday comparing his wife, Melania, a former model, to Cruz's wife, stating, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Politicus USA, FOX6Now.com, Business Insider, The Week and Booman Tribune
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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 and The Gateway Pundit
Gabby Morrongiello / Washington Examiner:
Poll: Nearly half of Republican women wouldn't vote for Trump — A new survey of women voters suggests a general election contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could be disastrous for the Republican Party. — Nearly half of the female Republican electorate (47 percent) …
Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Ted Cruz: I Didn't Attack Trump Earlier Because Those Who Did “Ended Up As Roadkill”
Ted Cruz: I Didn't Attack Trump Earlier Because Those Who Did “Ended Up As Roadkill”
Discussion:
Politico
Christopher Massie / BuzzFeed:
Trump-Backing Congressman: “Many Members Are Supporting Trump Quietly”
Trump-Backing Congressman: “Many Members Are Supporting Trump Quietly”
Discussion:
The Resurgent, No More Mister Nice Blog and Bloomberg Business
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:
The Atlantic, Guardian, Washington Post, Fusion, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Althouse, CNNMoney, Raw Story, Vox, Daily Mail and Engadget
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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, The Verge, Refinery29 and The Right Scoop
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:
Racist Twitter Bot Went Awry Due To “Coordinated Effort” By Users, Says Microsoft
Racist Twitter Bot Went Awry Due To “Coordinated Effort” By Users, Says Microsoft
Discussion:
NPR
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:
Microsoft's New AI-Powered Chatbot Mimics A 19-Year-Old American Girl
Microsoft's New AI-Powered Chatbot Mimics A 19-Year-Old American Girl
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Slate and Hit & Run
WQAD-TV:
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 …
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.
Matt Adams / Fox 59:
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 …
Discussion:
FOX31 Denver and The Daily Caller
David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
North Carolina Overturns LGBT-Discrimination Bans — DURHAM, N.C.—The North Carolina General Assembly called lawmakers back to Raleigh on Wednesday for a special session. The reason wasn't a pressing budget crisis, a natural disaster, or court-mandated redistricting. (That happened last month.)
Discussion:
Salon, Associated Press, Business Insider, Slate, Raleigh News & Observer, Project Vote, ThinkProgress and Vox
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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, Hot Air, Yahoo Politics, The Week, WND, PerezHilton, New York Magazine and Mother Jones
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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:
Townhall.com, NBC News, ABC News, New York Times, Daily Kos, National Review and WND
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Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Graham: Kasich is better candidate than Cruz — but can't win
Graham: Kasich is better candidate than Cruz — but can't win
Discussion:
The Bob and Chez Show
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:
Metro.co.uk, The Daily Caller, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Infowars, Rush Limbaugh, Guardian and The Verge
RELATED:
Adam Boult / Telegraph:
Croydon man arrested after confronting Muslim woman and telling her to ‘explain Brussels’
Croydon man arrested after confronting Muslim woman and telling her to ‘explain Brussels’
Discussion:
Pamela Geller, Mashable and Press Association
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. / Breitbart:
Colorado School District to Begin Distribution of Satanic Materials to Children — After coming under fire from atheist groups for the distribution of free Bibles, the Delta County School District (DCSD) has approved the circulation of atheistic, secular and Satanic literature to middle and high school students.
Discussion:
WND
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Makenzie O'Keefe / KJCT-TV:
Atheist and satanic literature to be distributed in Delta County schools
Atheist and satanic literature to be distributed in Delta County schools
Discussion:
EAGnews.org and Raw Story
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 …
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, Hit & Run, Independent Journal Review and Talking Points Memo
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 …
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:
Washington Post, WND, PerezHilton, Business Insider and Moe Lane
Emily Steel / New York Times:
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 …
Discussion:
New York Post, Engadget, Daily Mail, The Next Web, TechCrunch and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »
Associated Press:
Pope washes feet of Muslim migrants, says ‘we are brothers’ — CASTELNUOVO DI PORTO, Italy — Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of Muslim, Christian and Hindu refugees Thursday and declared them all children of the same God, as he performed a gesture of welcome and brotherhood …
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
Franklin Foer / Slate:
Donald Trump Hates Women — It's the one position he's never changed. — Donald Trump holds one core belief. It's not limited government. He favored a state takeover of health care before he was against it. Nor is it economic populism. Despite many years of arguing the necessity …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, FishbowlDC and The Week
Mariah Blake / Washington Monthly:
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 …
Discussion:
Slantpoint
TMZ.com:
Madonna — Busted For Posting Fake Signs to Hoard NYC Parking Spaces — BUSTED FOR POSTING FAKE SIGNS — To Hoard NYC Parking Spaces
Discussion:
CBS New York, Gothamist, PerezHilton 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.