News

The polls closed in New York state minutes ago and as expected Donald Trump has been projected to win, although under the GOP’s very complicated rules we won’t know how the delegates are allocated for at least a couple of hours. If Ted Cruz fails to take 20% of total vote, he’ll walk away empty-handed. On the Democratic side, exit …

The Hill reports: The insurer UnitedHealth is pulling out of the ObamaCare marketplaces in all but a “handful” of states in 2017, the company announced Tuesday. The announcement, made my CEO Stephen Hemsley on an earnings call, follows up on the company’s statement in November that it was considering dropping out completely due to financial losses. The Obama administration argues …

The Jerusalem Post reports: Yishai Schlissel, who stabbed participants in the July 2015 Gay Pride Parade in the capital, was convicted on Tuesday of murder and six counts of attempted murder by the Jerusalem District Court. The court in its ruling also slammed Israeli police apparatus for knowing about Schlissel and not stopping him. “It’s unconscionable,” the court said during …

Via Mediaite: CNN anchor Anderson Cooper chatted with Howard Stern today and said he does not plan on voting for president this year. He said, “I don’t think I’m gonna vote. I don’t think reporters should vote.” Cooper clarified that he has voted in the past, but now he doesn’t “want to be influenced one way or the other” when …

Playbill reports: Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical phenomenon that tells the story of “ten-dollar Founding Father without a father” Alexander Hamilton, was today named winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. It joins an exclusive club of just eight other musicals that have won the prestigious award since it was founded nearly a century ago. The Pulitzer, which is …

NBC News reports: Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders nationally by just two points in the Democratic presidential race, according to results from a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Clinton gets support from 50 percent of Democratic primary voters, while Sanders gets support from 48 percent. That’s down from Clinton’s nine-point advantage a month ago, 53 percent to 44 percent. …

At this writing hundreds of immigration activists are demonstrating outside the Supreme Court as justices prepare to hear oral arguments in the Texas-led case that seeks to overturn President Obama’s executive order preventing the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. CNN reports: Critics of Obama’s moves say they are part of a pattern of the White House looking to go …

Stick around for the Sesame Street singalong at the end. Via Salon: “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver last night centered his main segment on lead — as in the element that’s effectively poisoned the drinking water in Flint, Michigan. “Unfortunately, the problem is not just in Flint,” Oliver explained, citing a USA Today Network report that “found lead contamination …

For several days New York City’s music sites have been consumed with explosive allegations of child molestation against hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, whose 1982 global smash Planet Rock virtually created the electro and freestyle genres that dominated airwaves in the 80s and continues to influence much of current dance music. From today’s New York Daily News: Afrika Bambaataa was not …

The Hill reports: Bernie Sanders supporters showered Hillary Clinton’s motorcade with 1,000 $1 bills as she arrived at George Clooney’s house for a ritzy fundraising event Saturday night in Los Angeles. Clinton was headed to an event with Hollywood big wigs, including Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw and Haim and Cheryl Saban. Tickets started at $34,000. …

The Associated Press reports: Ted Cruz has nailed down all 14 Wyoming Republican delegates up for grabs at the state party convention Saturday, leaving Donald Trump facing yet another loss in a string of defeats in Western states. Saturday’s sweep follows Cruz’s victory last month in Wyoming, when he scored 9 of 12 available delegates at county conventions. Trump and …

The Washington Post reports: D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Friday called for a citywide vote in November to make the nation’s capital the 51st state, resurrecting a decades-old plan to put the issue before Congress and to raise awareness across the country about District residents’ lack of full citizenship. “I propose we take another bold step toward democracy in …

The Associated Press reports: Republican Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday vetoed a bill seeking to make Tennessee the first state to designate the Bible as its official book. Haslam, who considered entering a seminary before deciding to join the family truck stop business after college, said in his veto message that the bill “trivializes the Bible, which I believe is …

Via Gothamist: Less than a week before what he called the “enormously important” New York Democratic Primary next Tuesday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders drew an estimated 27,000 supporters to a jubilant rally last night in Washington Square Park. That head count comes from Sanders’s camp, but seems plausible—in 2007 then-candidate Barack Obama claimed 20,000 registered attendees at a Washington Square …

Via Mediaite: A federal judge in Nebraska has ruled that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSMism) is not a real religion, delivering a setback to practicing Pastafarians around the country. In an order filed Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge John M. Gerrard wrote that: “The Court finds that FSMism is not a ‘religion’ within the meaning of the …

The New York Daily News reports: The “Affluenza” teen will spend the next two years behind bars. A judge ordered Ethan Couch — the Texas teen who dodged a prison sentence for a fatal 2013 DUI crash by claiming he was too privileged to serve time, only to flee the country two years later — to serve four consecutive 180-day …

So THIS started to go viral a few days ago. From the Daily Mail: Hell hath no fury like an angry Southern mom. Taking away electronics is a common parental punishment, but this mother decided to take it one step further – and shoot up her children’s iPhones with a rifle. ‘I hereby denounce the effects that social media have …

From their editorial: On April 19, New York Democrats will have unusual say over the party’s nominee. They have in Clinton a superprepared warrior realist. They have in opponent Bernie Sanders a fantasist who’s at passionate war with reality. By choosing Clinton, Empire State Dems would powerfully signal that the party has gotten real about achieving long-sought goals. Clinton is …

The Hill reports: Donald Trump says he will not be attending this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, despite receiving a flurry of invitations from the media. Trump attended the annual dinner in 2011, only to have President Obama poke fun at him repeatedly in his comedy routine. The resulting press coverage did not sit well with the GOP front-runner. …

Arstechnica reports: Under the first-of-its-kind legislation proposed in New York, drivers involved in accidents would have to submit their phone to roadside testing from a textalyzer to determine whether the driver was using a mobile phone ahead of a crash. In a bid to get around the Fourth Amendment right to privacy, the textalyzer allegedly would keep conversations, contacts, numbers, …