The Trump effect

February 25, 2016 - Daily News Briefing

What began as an improbable quest for the Republican nomination is no longer looking improbable.

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President Obama could be considering Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) as a possible replacement for former US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The nomination of the Republican Mr. Sandoval could serve as a compromise position, if the GOP were amenable to compromise. But Republican senators have repeatedly insisted they will not act on any possible appointments until a new president is elected. This would be Obama's third Supreme Court nominee, following his nominations of Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 and Elena Kagan in 2010. Scalia’s departure leaves the court divided along ideological lines, with four liberal and four conservative justices remaining.

While federal officials and tech industry insiders have taken predictable sides in the ongoing legal battle between Apple, Inc. and the FBI, the pulse of the American public on the matter has been harder to read. One poll, released Wednesday, surveyed more than 1,500 adults throughout the United States this week and found that around 46 percent of respondents agreed with Apple’s decision to reject a court order requiring it to unlock the cell phone of San Bernardino, Calif., shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Thirty-five percent disagreed with Apple’s stance.

Former Texas governor and two-time presidential hopeful Rick Perry has been cleared of a first-degree felony charge, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday. The charge dates back to 2013, when Mr. Perry publicly threatened – and then proceeded – to veto $7.5 million in state funding for a group of public corruption prosecutors with the Public Integrity Unit. The governor moved to veto the funding after Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, who headed the group of prosecutors, refused Perry’s requests to resign after she was convicted of drunk driving. Perry was charged with abuse of power and coercion of a public servant. His coercion charge was dismissed in July, but it wasn’t until the court’s 6-2 ruling Wednesday that Perry was cleared of his second and final felony charge.

Burundi's president promises to release 2,000 people detained during months of violent unrest, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday while visiting the violence-plagued country. Ban said President Pierre Nkurunziza's vow to release some prisoners is "an encouraging step" and urged the president to take more measures to promote peace. Ban and Nkurunziza spoke to reporters in a joint news conference in Bujumbura. Nkurunziza said he is ready to talk to his opponents and urged Ban "to persuade Rwanda to stop its aggression against Burundi." Rwanda has denied allegations it is training and arming rebels opposed to Nkurunziza.

Death Valley is the hottest place on Earth and the driest place in North America, averaging 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and less than two inches of rain a year. Typically the area is barren, filled with only rocks and dirt. But this year, thanks to rains from El Niño, the desert is afire with color. Why are super blooms so rare? The National Park Service attributes three key factors to a good wildflower year in Death Valley: well-spaced rainfall, sufficient sun warmth, and minimal drying winds. The last two super blooms occurred in 1998 and 2005, which, like this year, were El Niño years.

Facebook rolled out it's new "Reactions" on Wednesday, a new take on social media's traditional "Like" button. For the past seven years, Facebook’s thumbs-up "Like" button has been the only single-click way for users to respond to a post, comment, photo, or article. “We’ve been listening to people and know that there should be more ways to easily and quickly express how something you see in News Feed makes you feel,” Facebook product manager, Sammi Krug said Wednesday. Instead of the old "Like" system, Reactions will offer users six possible responses: Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, or Angry.

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