In Pennsylvania, Katie McGinty won the Democratic Senate primary. Barack Obama recorded a commercial for her, Joe Biden stumped with her and the official party apparatus spent $2.2 million on ads to get her across the finish line. Her rival, retired Admiral Joe Sestak, led in some polls just last week. But party leaders worried that he would lose to Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in the fall, just as he did in 2010. Last night, McGinty won by 10 points.

AD

AD

In Maryland, Rep. Chris Van Hollen defeated Rep. Donna Edwards in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski. He had the support of the state’s political establishment, including Martin O’Malley, and the donor class.

In the costly primary to succeed Van Hollen, the candidate who actually had legislative experience beat the self-funder and the wife of a TV star. State Sen. Jamie Raskin—who led the fights in Annapolis to repeal the death penalty, legalize gay marriage and ban assault weapons—beat wine store owner David Trone, who outspent him 6-to-1, and Kathleen Matthews, a former TV anchor who is married to MSNBC’S Chris Matthews. State Sen. Jamie Raskin—who led the fights in Annapolis to repeal the death penalty, legalize gay marriage and ban assault weapons—beat wine store owner David Trone, who outspent him 6-to-1, and Kathleen Matthews, a former TV anchor who is married to MSNBC’S Chris Matthews.

In the race to replace Edwards, former Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown – who lost the 2014 governor’s race – got the Democratic nod.

Obama demonstrated his clout down the ballot, as well. The president’s pick for Pennsylvania Attorney General, a county commissioner named Josh Shapiro, narrowly prevailed in a three-way race.

-- Most of all, though, national Democrats took heart in Trump’s clean sweep. They badly want to face the billionaire in the fall, confident that his unpopularity would allow them to win the Senate and hold the White House.

AD

Trump, as expected, won all five states. But his huge margins of victory exceeded expectations. “Heading into Tuesday’s contests, Trump had 845 pledged delegates — a lead of nearly 300 over Cruz — and was poised to pull further ahead by about 100 delegates or more,” Philip Rucker and Jose A. DelReal report. “Basking in what he called his ‘biggest night’ of the race so far, Trump declared himself the ‘presumptive nominee.’”

AD

“He still isn't a numeric lock to get to the 1,237 delegates he needs. But man oh man is he sitting pretty right now,” adds The Fix’s Chris Cillizza.

-- Tuesday can only be described as another debacle for the Stop Trump movement.

“Trump is essentially two key states from the nomination,” Nate Cohn writes in the New York Times. “He has long been favored in the polls in two of the remaining primary states, New Jersey and West Virginia. … If Trump wins Indiana, a merely modest win in California could be enough to give him 1,237.”

-- On the Democratic side, Sanders no longer has a path to victory. “Clinton’s lead among pledged delegates was above 200 before Tuesday’s voting and could be roughly 300 after her lopsided victories in delegate-rich Pennsylvania and Maryland,” Abby Phillip, John Wagner and Anne Gearan tabulate. Only 24 delegates were at stake in Rhodes Island, where Sanders won. “Even if Sanders were to score a blowout in California, which offers more than 500 delegates on June 7, Clinton appears certain to have locked up the nomination."

AD

AD

CNN's tally:

-- The coverage this morning makes clear that Bernie’s hopes are dashed.

“She has effectively put this out of reach,” said MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

“His loss in Pennsylvania is particularly devastating,” writes the Boston Globe’s Annie Linskey . “Sanders’ team had — even just a week ago — predicted that the Vermont senator would prevail in the state.”

“Sanders can’t win,” writes Slate’s Jamelle Bouie . “If it’s not a fact just yet, it’s at least quickly hardening into one.”

-- What’s next? “Sanders has pledged to remain in the race, but in a statement Tuesday night, he suggested motives besides winning the nomination, such as shaping the Democratic party’s platform, would keep him in the campaign,” Bernie beat reporter John Wagner reports. In West Virginia earlier in the day, Bernie listed several issues he would like to see addressed in Philadelphia, including a $15 minimum wage and support for a single-payer health-care system.

“Tad Devine, Sanders’s senior strategist, said the candidate and his top aides plan to talk Wednesday about how his path to the nomination has been affected by Tuesday’s results, but he said he sees no scenario in which Sanders drops out ,” Wagner reports.

“ Sanders is poised to perform well in Indiana and has said he expects to outright win other states voting soon, including West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon,” he adds. “ But there are no big prizes on the Democratic calendar in May that would allow him to capture a large number of delegates.”

Democracy for America, one of the main groups backing Sanders, suggested the goal is no longer winning, but respect,” ,” NBC News reports. “The question right now isn't whether the movement behind Bernie Sanders is going to continue winning delegates and states in the weeks ahead, it's whether the Democratic establishment is going to bring our party together by embracing our fight,” said executive director Charles Chamberlain.

-- The night’s biggest loser in the presidential race, though, might have been Ted Cruz. He finished a humiliating third place in four of the five states that voted. In the fifth, Pennsylvania, he campaigned hard to finish second—and would up pulling just 22 percent to Trump’s 57 percent. That’s a 35 point loss in his best state. Preliminary network exit polls, in fact, showed that 55 percent of evangelicals voted for Trump in Pennsylvania. This is Cruz’s base. “In past contests (many with more candidates), Trump has averaged 36 percent,” Philip Bump notes.

AD

AD

The Texas senator’s very real problem is that anti-Trump voters are not rallying behind him as the best alternative. Not that Maryland will be competitive in the fall, but 57 percent of Maryland Republicans said they would definitely vote for Trump if he became the party’s nominee, compared to only 37 percent who said they’d definitely back Cruz.

-- To be clear, Kasich’s numbers are not impressive. He just out-performed Cruz. “Tuesday’s primaries seemed to put limits on the pragmatic Republican vote,” writes David Weigel. “In Pennsylvania, Kasich lost to Cruz by 14 points with voters who wanted a candidate who shared their values. He lost by 4 points among voters seeking ‘electability,’ despite polls that showed him winning the state in November while Cruz and Trump would lose it.” The Ohio governor got whipped in places he needed to win, like Montgomery County, Maryland, or Greenwich, Connecticut.

Even Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) mocked his chances:

-- Trump’s victories raise the stakes for next week’s Indiana primary. Dan Balz calls it “a make-or-break event” for Cruz: “A defeat in Indiana, though not a mathematical ending to the nomination battle, would nonetheless be a crippling blow to what is left of his strategy for winning.”

-- So much for that “pivot” to being “presidential”: Last night, during his victory speech, Trump declared: “Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she’d get 5 percent of the vote."

AD

AD

“I think the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else going on,” he said at Trump Tower. “The only thing she’s got going on is the women’s vote. And the beautiful thing is women don’t like her, ok?”

Earlier in the day, he boasted about actress Lena Dunham saying she’ll move to Canada if he’s elected. “She’s a B actor and has no, you know, mojo,” he said.

Still don't think Trump is toxic for Republicans in a general election? If he’s the nominee, every single GOP candidate in a top-tier race will be attacked over the aforementioned comments. Do you agree Hillary would only get 5 percent of the vote if she was a man? They might be able to duck that question right now, but their opponents won’t allow that come fall. They will either distance themselves—and risk alienating Trump supporters—or stay silent and then get forced to own it. Remember, Trump also brags about never changing diapers. He said Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her wherever" when she questioned him about his history of calling women "disgusting animals" and "dogs." Bottom line: It will just be so, so, so easy for Democrats to portray Trump as unconcerned with the daily struggles of women. As Trump put it last night, “I don’t want to change my personality. It got me here!”

AD

AD

Other gems from his victory lap:

Secondary storylines out of last night—

-- Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) became the first incumbent to go down in 2016. The Philadelphia congressman faces 29 criminal charges for bribery, money laundering and bank fraud. His trial is supposed to start in the next few weeks. But this, again, is what the establishment wanted. “Pennsylvania's current governor, former governor (Ed Rendell) and Philadelphia's mayor all endorsed his opponent -- longtime state Rep. Dwight Evans,” Amber Phillips notes.

-- Despite his romantic relationship with an airline lobbyist, the House Transportation Committee chairman narrowly beat back a tea party primary challenge. He trailed for much of the night before winning by 4 points (52-48).

-- What our exit polling tells us about how Van Hollen won: “Although Edwards polled stronger with women leading into the election, she lost women voters 52-41 percent to Van Hollen,” explains Post pollster Scott Clement

AD

AD

It was the highest black turnout in over two decades: African Americans accounted for 46 percent of the Democratic electorate, compared to 37 percent when Obama was running in 2008. Edwards pulled almost 60 percent of African Americans, but Van Hollen won an even larger 70 percent of the whites.

Notably, Edwards received only 56 percent support among black women, compared with 65 percent support among black men. ( compared with 65 percent support among black men. ( Last Friday's 202 explored Van Hollen's efforts to make inroads with this constituency.

There was a generational divide: Whites over 45 supported Van Hollen by an 81 to 16 margin, compared with 50-30 among whites under 45. ( Whites over 45 supported Van Hollen by an 81 to 16 margin, compared with 50-30 among whites under 45. ( Check out a cool interactive graphic with our exit poll numbers.

You cannot overlook money: Van Hollen outspent Edwards, $6.3 million to $2.7 million, though outside groups spent $5 million foer he and $1.6 million for him.

“Moments after conceding at a union hall in Prince George’s County, Edwards gave a pointed speech, criticizing her ‘friends in the state Democratic Party,’ which she said is on the verge of ‘an all-male delegation in a so-called progressive state,’” Rachel Weiner reports. “She said Democrats cannot continue to ignore women and people of color.” (Van Hollen is the heavy favorite to beat Republican nominee Kathy Szeliga, a state delegate who represents parts of Baltimore and Harford counties, in November.)

-- A new mayor for Baltimore: “Catherine E. Pugh, a state senator from the West Baltimore neighborhoods that were rocked by riots a year ago, claimed victory … in the crucial Democratic mayoral primary over former mayor Sheila Dixon,” Steve Hendrix and Fenit Nirappil report. “In heavily Democratic Baltimore, Pugh is virtually assured of becoming the city’s third consecutive African American female mayor at a time of continuing racial tension, spiking crime and economic malaise. She made an appeal to the disenfranchised central to her campaign. Pugh, 66, led the crowded field of 13 contenders with 37 percent of the vote to Dixon’s 34 percent. A record turnout during early voting proved crucial to Pugh’s success.”

Corrections: Yesterday’s 202 said Barbara Mikulski was the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate in her own right. While Hattie Caraway was appointed to fill her deceased husband’s Senate seat, the Arkansan won a full term in 1932. (Short bio here.) Also, in the Maryland Senate race, Nancy Pelosi never formally endorsed Van Hollen, who has been a loyal lieutenant and close ally.

AD

AD

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

-- The Anaheim, California, City Council voted against formally denouncing Trump and his “divisive rhetoric” after a heated, four-hour debate. Outside city hall last night, clashes between Trump supporters and opponents turned violent – with demonstrators on both sides hurling obscenities, firing pepper spray -- and in one case, lunging at an opponent with a Taser. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Belgian prosecutors handed over a key suspect in the Paris attacks to France: "The French prosecutor’s office confirmed that Salah Abdeslam, 26, arrived in Paris and that he will face investigative judges for eventual charges," James McAuley reports. Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels on March 18 after four months of eluding authorities. His capture was a watershed moment in the ongoing investigation into the cell of largely European-born jihadists. Inspired by the Islamic State, his group initially planned a second attack in France, but because of encroaching arrests opted for a quicker and easier option instead.

GET SMART FAST:​​

THE DAILY DONALD:

-- The profile of Paul Manafort you've been waiting for: Trump hired him to add the wisdom of a veteran Washington operative to a campaign of political novices. But beneath the surface is a more complex picture, Steven Mufson and Tom Hamburger report. Manafort has parlayed political relationships around the world into an array of intricate financial transactions with oligarchs and other controversial investors that have occasionally spurred legal disputes:

In one deal, records show Manafort borrowed and later repaid a $250,000 loan from a Middle Eastern arms dealer at the center of a French inquiry into whether kickbacks were paid to politicians in a 1995 presidential campaign.

In another, a Russian businessman accused Manafort of taking nearly $19 million intended for investments , then failing to account for funds or respond to inquiries about how they were used. Attorneys for the businessman claimed at one point they could not locate Manafort or his partner, and hired a private investigator to track them down.

“Prior to joining Trump’s campaign, Manafort had operated largely out of the limelight. But he once explained his approach to business during public testimony to Congress. ‘The technical term for what we do ... is ‘lobbying,' Manafort said. ‘For [the] purposes of today, I will admit that, in a narrow sense, some people might term it ‘influence peddling.’”

-- A New York judge ruled that a fraud case over the now-defunct “Trump University” will go to trial – raising the possibility that the billionaire businessman could be forced to testify during campaign season. (Fox News)

-- California voter registration has DOUBLED among Latinos, TRIPLED among Democrats, and increased by more than 150 percent among some young voters. Capitol Weekly studied the numbers and found that Trump’s Super Tuesday romp corresponded with a huge spike in Democratic voter registration among Latinos.

-- The billionaire sold his jet to himself in order to circumvent an FAA registration issue that recently grounded his plane. The legal maneuver allows him to avoid what could potentially be a lengthy wait time to re-register his aircraft. (New York Times)

-- Trump may be well positioned to clinch the nomination, but the evidence is mounting that he must win on the first ballot at the convention in Cleveland. Politico’s Kyle Cheney and Katie Glueck report on some new developments in the delegate hunt:

In Texas , Cruz is positioned to sweep the state’s enormous delegate haul. “I’d be very surprised if 155 out of the 155 weren’t for Cruz,” said Steve Munisteri, a former state party chairman who is unaligned.

“In Missouri — a state Trump narrowly won — Cruz is poised to dominate local and state-level contests for 49 delegates.”

In Iowa , a slate of 15 statewide delegates will include at least 11 Cruz backers, including Rep. Steve King, Bob Vander Plaats and Cruz staffer Bryan English. And the others “aren’t exactly Trump loyalists.”

In Illinois , Kasich supporters are most likely to dominate the 12 statewide delegate slots, even though they’ll be pledged to Trump on a first ballot.

“In Virginia, which holds its state convention this weekend … at least one state GOP central committee member noted that Cruz supporters are expected to dominate … and will be able to have their way with the delegate slate. Candidates for delegate slots include Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia attorney general who is one of Cruz’s top delegate organizers.”

MORE ON THE REPUBLICAN RACE:

-- With less than a week until Indiana’s primary, Gov. Mike Pence has not decided whether he will endorse: “I’ve made no decision yet on whether or not I’ll weigh in,” said Pence, who faces a competitive reelection campaign of his own. (Indianapolis Star)

Why staying neutral might actually be a short-sighted move for the hyper-ambitious Pence: If Trump narrowly wins his state and then the nomination, "the recriminations will be ferocious," Jonah Goldberg writes in his column today. "The postmortems will undoubtedly focus on who had a chance to stop Trump when it was possible. Among the first in the dock: the Hamlet of the Hoosiers.”

National Review’s editorial board today urges Pence to back Cruz, saying that the governor staying on the sidelines “is unlikely to redound to Pence’s benefit”: “He will not be remembered fondly for, by dint of inaction, helping to cede his state ... to a populist who shares few of Pence’s principles and who, if current polls are any indication, would likely lose the White House, perhaps badly."

-- Kasich is not featured in Oregon’s official voter pamphlet for the state’s May primary election. His campaign failed to submit required information before a deadline, The Register-Guard reports.

-- John Cornyn burns Cruz. In an interview with KERA News, the Senate Majority Whip said, though he regularly works with his fellow Texas senator, the two have “differences on tactics.” There is no love lost after Cruz stayed on the sidelines during Cornyn's own 2014 reelection campaign. “Part of it is from the fact that I’ve been here a while and I’m part of the elected Republican leadership,” Cornyn said. “My goal has always been to figure out how we can advance the conservative cause. I think he’s taken the more immediate, shorter-term view of things. He came here to run for president. I think that perhaps explains the difference in tactics.” Cornyn continues to say he will not endorse Cruz during the primaries.

MORE ON THE DEMOCRATIC RACE:

-- Hillary is looking ahead to Indiana's primary next week, where she is locked in a tight race. “The state has always been a tough nut to crack for Clinton," writes Abby Phillip. “In 2008, she defeated Obama here by less than one percentage point. This year, her challenges could be similar to the ones she faced in states like Michigan (where she lost, unexpectedly) and Ohio (where she won narrowly)." Clinton was ahead 46 percent to 42 percent in the latest Fox News poll from the Hoosier State, where 92 delegates are at stake.

-- The Clinton campaign is retooling its messaging on trade: Speaking to an audience of steel employees and their families in Hammond yesterday, Clinton promised to make “survival” of the industry one of her top priorities. “I’m saying to CEOs who think they can make a quick buck by turning their back on our country ... we are not going to let you take advantage of us anymore,” Clinton said. “I’m going to stand up to both CEOs at home and China abroad.”

The Democratic front-runner also delivered some thinly-veiled digs at Sanders: “It’s not enough just to diagnose the problem,” Clinton said. “We all know that we are losing jobs. We all know that we are facing unfair competition … Give me the specifics, don’t just give me the rhetoric and the demagoguery.”

-- Clinton said at least half her Cabinet would be women: The former secretary of state told Rachel Maddow during MSNBC’s town hall that she plans on having a Cabinet “that looks like America. And 50 percent of America is women, right?” (Yahoo)

-- Jane Sanders said her husband will not release their back tax returns until Clinton releases the transcripts of all her Wall Street speeches. (CNN)

WAPO HIGHLIGHT:

-- “What does Afghanistan need? Some major rebranding, says its 32-year-old ambassador,” by Roxanne Roberts: "As a young boy, [Hamdullah] Mohib lived in refugee camps. As a teenager, he was sent to England to escape the Taliban. Now, at the tender age of 32, he is Afghanistan’s new ambassador to the U.S., representing a country where 75 percent of the population is younger than 35 — and has never known a day of peace. Now the first-time ambassador and his 29-year-old American wife have come to Washington to make the case that real change is not only possible, but happening. It’s not something you can see, he admits. Violence and tragedy still dominate the headlines about Afghanistan. But it’s there, he insists, in every conversation, in the plans and dreams of millions of young Afghans. He likes to quote Ghani’s address to Congress … ‘Ordinary has escaped us, but it’s what we desperately want.’ ... 'We just want to be ordinary,' says Mohib, although he acknowledges that this is a distant dream. ‘It’s not an ordinary country. And I’m not an ordinary ambassador.'"

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

— ZIGNAL VISUAL: Trump calling for Sanders to run as a third-party candidate has about 11,000 retweets.

Our analytics partners at Zignal Labs are amazed at Trump’s ability to control his own social media message. Very consistently, the most popular tweets about Trump come from the candidate himself:

Clinton also drove her own social media message yesterday (the top five tweets about her were from the official @HillaryClinton account), but they got just a fraction of the retweets and favorites that Trump’s did.

Here's a sampling of the Twitter reaction:

-- Cruz awkwardly tried to recreate a scene from "Hoosiers" at an Indiana rally:

In the process, he called a basketball hoop a "basketball ring":

The dean could not handle it:

Sanders brought up the Clinton-Trump relationship in a fundraising email:

Speaking of Trump, check out this sign from outside his forthcoming D.C. hotel:

-- Lots of pundits have been wrong over the past year, but many decided to make fun of this Bill Kristol tweet from last summer:

-- D.C. celebrated College Signing Day:

Scott Brown, with a small dig at his wife, joked about their dog:

Intense weather hit the midwest:

House Republicans got a visit from a bald eagle:

John McCain said he supports mixed martial artist Phil Davis for president:

HOT ON THE LEFT “Florida Senate candidate says it's not safe to allow 'anybody from the Middle East' into U.S.,” from the Sun-Sentinel: “Trump suggested banning all Muslims from entering the U.S. Now, a [Florida Senate candidate] wants to ban anyone from a Middle Eastern country, except Israel, from entering the U.S … On Monday night, Carlos Beruff was asked by someone in the audience about his ‘position on Muslim immigration.’ ‘I think our immigration department is broken,” he said. ‘And I don't think it's safe to allow anybody from the Middle East into this country.’ Most of the audience of Republicans … erupted in applause and some cheers.” HOT ON THE RIGHT Denver Christian School changing its name, from Colorado 9 News: “For 65 years of their 100 year history, Denver Christian Schools has been known as the Crusaders. Later this year, that will change. School leaders say many in the community have expressed concerns about the mascot and its ties to the Crusades, a series of wars between Christians and Muslims. Critics say the long tradition of the name should be enough to keep it around. They claim the school did not give them a voice in the name change. They also say there is nothing wrong with the name Crusader, as it has been part of the school’s history for 65 years.”

DAYBOOK:

On the campaign trail: Everyone's headed to Indiana. Here's the rundown:

Sanders: Cordova, Bloomington, Ind.

Trump: Foreign policy speech at the Mayflower in the lunch hour, then Indianapolis, Ind. and then a town hall with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News (to air at 7 p.m. ET)

Cruz: Indianapolis, Ind.

At the White House: President Obama presents the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the U.S. Naval Academy football team.

On Capitol Hill: The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to work on the energy bill. The House meets at noon for legislative business, with votes on HALOS Act and four suspension bills later in the day.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Republican nominee for Attorney General in North Carolina, state Sen. Buck Newton, said he voted for the controversial H.B. 2 law to “keep our state straight." Speaking of the transgender community, he said: “Whether folks are struggling with drugs or struggling with their marriages, figuring out what it is that they’re supposed to be doing in life, we can all have sympathy for that. But that does not mean that we should expose our wives and our sisters and our children to the sexual predators in the bathrooms. We must say no. … Go home, tell your friends and family who had to work today what this is all about and how hard we had to fight to keep our state straight.” (Niraj Chokshi)

GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:

-- Bloomberg Politics, “Raising Cash in Trump’s Name, Whether He Likes It or Not,” by Zachary Mider: “When the fundraising e-mail hit his inbox in February, Terry Crouthamel sent $250 to Trump's presidential campaign. Or rather, he thought he did. It wasn't until almost two months later that Crouthamel … learned the truth.” “I was under the impression it was going to Trump,” he said. The money actually went to Great America PAC, an unrelated group that Trump has accused of confusing donors by using his name, image, and slogan—‘Make America Great Again’—in mass fundraising e-mails and TV ads … The Trump campaign says it's concerned the group's donors may think they're funding Trump, ‘when in fact they are supporting an unauthorized effort, one which is subject to no oversight.' Unauthorized groups that invoke the name of a popular candidate or cause to raise money aren't uncommon, or illegal, in the world of political fundraising. ‘Anyone can set one of these up,’ said Brett Kappel ... ‘It's buyer beware—you have to exercise due diligence before giving money over the Internet.’”

-- Variety Magazine cover story, “Presidential Race Takes Over Pop Culture as Hopefuls Embrace Celebrity Status,” by Ted Johnson: “A carnival atmosphere has always surrounded presidential campaigns, but the mix of pop with politics has become serious business that translates to awareness, attention and adulation … ‘One of the things I have gotten marginally famous for years ago was saying, ‘Politics is show business for ugly people,’’ says political consultant Paul Begala … ‘And so much more today than ever,’ he adds. ‘It is becoming both more showbiz-y and more ugly.’”

NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:

-- Today’s weather brings in some cooler, cloudier temps. The Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “A few light showers are possible through the course of the day, thanks to a cold front draped just to our south. Otherwise we’re overcast and much cooler, with highs only in the upper 50s to mid-60s.”

-- The Nationals lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3.

-- Virginia has suspended the license of a Fairfax abortion clinic after authorities found 26 deficiencies during an inspection this month. “Inspectors observed dirty equipment, expired medication in unlocked cabinets, lax storage of medical records and a failure of staff to sterilize and maintain medical equipment and follow hand-washing protocols, according to a 52-page report.” (Jenna Portnoy)

-- Despite having no voting representation in Congress, District residents paid more in federal taxes than 22 states. (DCist)

-- A D.C. nonprofit for at-risk youths is bankrupt following mismanagement and exorbitant spending. The program, which keeps afloat more than 70 after-school programs and receives millions of taxpayer dollars each year, will be dissolved to cover outstanding debts. (Aaron C. Davis)

-- A Rockville daycare operator was charged with killing a 6-month-old girl who suffered injuries “too numerous to count” in the basement of his home. And he allegedly tried to cover his tracks by cleaning up her blood before authorities could see it. (Dan Morse)

-- D.C. police arrested two 19-year-olds and charged them with stabbing a juvenile as he got off a bus near the campus of Roosevelt High School in Northwest (near Georgia and Webster avenues). "The stabbing comes a day after a teenage student at Wilson High School was stabbed in an attempted robbery," Justin Wm. Moyer and Peter Hermann report.

-- Two men who offered a child candy in an attempt to lure her into a car in Northwest last night are being sought by D.C. police. They approached her in the 3900 block of Argyle Terrace NW about 7 p.m.

-- What a waste of money:

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

Watch local newscasters mispronouncing "Acela" (click for video):

This new super PAC web ad -- widely mocked on Twitter -- envisions Kasich winning at the GOP convention:

Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster, take a look inside the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine:

An agile bear scaled a fence to outrun police in Los Angeles:

As the weekend draws near, here's a look back at Obama's best White House Correspondents' dinner moments:

The documentary about Anthony Weiner’s failed campaign for NYC mayor hits theaters on May 20. Here's the 2-minute trailer: