Santorum Suspends Presidential Campaign  —  Updated Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday, bowing to the inevitability of Mitt Romney's nomination and ending his improbable, come-from-behind quest to become the party's conservative standard-bearer in the fall.

Trayvon Martin: Attorneys say Zimmerman contacted prosecutor, Sean Hannity  —  The two men who have been George Zimmerman's most outspoken defenders, attorneys Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner, said today that they're off the case.  —  “On Sunday, we lost track of George, in that he would not return our calls,” attorney Uhrig said.

Announcing Our Newest Hire: A Current Fox News Channel Employee  —  What follows is the inaugural column of a person we are calling The Fox Mole—a long-standing, current employee of Fox News Channel who will be providing Gawker with regular dispatches from inside the organization.

Hansen and Schmidt of NASA GISS under fire for climate stance: Engineers, scientists, astronauts ask NASA administration to look at empirical evidence rather than climate models  —  Looks like another GISS miss, more than a few people are getting fed up with Jim Hansen and Gavin Schmidt and their climate shenanigans.

Madam Secretary Meme Goes From Gay-Bar Banter to State Department Invite  —  [Photo: Stacy Lambe, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Adam Smith, texting and loling, on April 10, 2012.  (Photos from Texts From Hillary.)]  —  Two gays walk into a bar ...

Poll: Half Of Democrats Want To Get Rid of Individual Mandate  —  A key talking point of Democrats and liberal pundits regarding the Supreme Court's ObamaCare case is that if the justices overturn the law — or even just the individual mandate portion — it will damage the “legitimacy” of the court.

Exclusive: McDonald's Says It Has Dumped ALEC  —  Add another name to the list of corporations who've ditched the American Legislative Exchange Council: McDonald's.  —  The fast food giant tells Mother Jones that it recently decided to cut ties with ALEC, the corporate-backed group …

Huge quakes strike off Indonesia; tsunami warning issued  —  (Reuters) - A powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake and strong aftershocks struck off Indonesia on Wednesday, sending people as far away as southern India scurrying from buildings and raising fears of a disastrous tsunami as in 2004.

America's Debt Bomb: Worse Than Europe's  —  It has been said many times in recent months that we aren't Greece.  Now it will start to be said that we aren't Spain.  Both propositions are certainly true.  (For one thing, Spain elected its socialist government in 2004, thus getting a head start on us.)

New Low in Support for Health Law; Half Expect Justices to Go Political  —  Last month's hearings on the constitutionality of health care reform didn't help its popularity: Public support for Barack Obama's signature domestic legislation has hit a new low in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll …

Painter of Light, Dead at 54  —  On Friday April 6, famous “painter of light” Thomas Kinkade died.  Kinkade is known not only for his beautifully cheerful paintings but his strong faith and belief in Christianity.  Within many of his paintings, he hid the names of his family members …

Newt Gingrich stiffs Utah  —  Five Republicans have filed the necessary papers and $500 fee to qualify for the June 26 Utah presidential primary election, but with Rick Santorum dropping out of the race Tuesday, only four will be on the ballot.  —  Or, make that possibly three.

HOLY CRAP: NOM admits it used racial wedge strategies, has unfairly stifled free speech!  (*Or was hacked)  —  From the org's official Facebook wall: … Were they hacked?  Has another NOMmer flipped?  Or has this whole scandal simply driven the NOM set so cray cray that they are seriously …

“Double-Counting” Canard Quacks Again  —  Former Bush Administration official Charles Blahous has garnered some media attention by gussying up old, discredited arguments about the budgetary effects of health reform.  But his paper adds nothing new to the debate.

Obama makes case for ‘Buffett Rule,’ higher taxes on wealthy  —  BOCA RATON, Fla. — President Obama intensified his populist pitch Tuesday, aggressively making the case that the wealthiest Americans should pay more in taxes and taking Republicans to task for opposing the “Buffett Rule.”

UCLA sends mistaken congrats to 894 applicants and then apologizes  —  Congratulations, you're in!  Oops, nevermind.  That was a mistake.  —  In an email about financial aid awards, UCLA told 894 high school seniors last weekend that they were admitted to the highly competitive campus.

Testimony Suggests Former GSA Administrator Skipped Vegas Conference For Meetings at Solyndra  —  Former General Services Administration administrator Martha Johnson missed a lavish Las Vegas conference for government employees because she was already committed to meetings in California at Solyndra …

Catholic Cardinal: A Sin to Cooperate With Obama Mandate  —  A leading Catholic cardinal at the Vatican has essentially said that complying the with Obama birth control mandate would have Catholics and Catholic organizations participating in sin.  —  The mandate compels religious employers …