10 things you need to know today: May 5, 2016

(Image credit: AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Jump to category:

1. Kasich drops out of presidential race
2. Bush 41 and Bush 43 won't endorse Trump
3. Obama visits Flint and drinks water to show it's safe
4. Feds say North Carolina's bathroom law violates Civil Rights Act
5. Clinton might have to be interviewed in email case
6. California raises age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21
7. Detroit teachers end sick-out
8. Disgruntled employee kills colleague, self at Texas trucking company
9. Former Utah senator Bob Bennett dies at 82
10. Oil-sands operations threatened by massive wildfire in Canada

published 5 May 2016

1. Kasich drops out of presidential race

Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday, leaving longtime frontrunner Donald Trump as the party's only remaining candidate. Kasich prided himself on running a positive campaign in the middle of a mudfest. Kasich was running a distant third behind Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, but was briefly left as the only alternative to the presumptive nominee when Cruz dropped out a day earlier following Trump's decisive victory in Tuesday's Indiana primary.

George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush don't plan to endorse presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the presidential election, people close to the former presidents told The Texas Tribune on Wednesday. Bush 41 has endorsed every GOP nominee in the five election cycles since he left office, but only briefly weighed in this year to support his son, Jeb, who dropped out of the race in February. "At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics," his spokesman, Jim McGrath, said. Bush 43 doesn't plan to "participate in or comment on" the race, an aide said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

President Obama visited Flint, Michigan, on Wednesday for the first time since its drinking water became contaminated with lead. Obama received a briefing on the crisis and then took a drink of filtered city water to show that it is safe. "If you're using a filter ... then Flint water at this point is drinkable," Obama said. Flint's water became tainted after the city switched sources to save money, and the new source corroded pipes. Protesters heckled Gov. Rick Snyder during the event. Also on Wednesday, state lawmakers approved spending another $128 million to address the crisis.

The Justice Department warned North Carolina on Wednesday that its law requiring people to use public restrooms corresponding to their birth gender amounted to discrimination against transgender people. In a letter, Vanita Gupta, acting chief of the department's Civil Rights Division, told Gov. Pat McCrory (R) that failing to give state employees access to bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity would violate the Civil Rights Act. Such a determination could cause the state to lose millions in federal school funding.

A federal judge on Wednesday said Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton might have to give a deposition on her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Judge Emmet Sullivan said Clinton's testimony "may be necessary" to determine whether the State Department did everything necessary to respond to conservative watchdog Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act request about outside work top aide Huma Abedin did while she was working for Clinton at the State Department.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed bills on Wednesday raising the state's legal smoking age from 18 to 21, and restricting use of e-cigarettes in public. Brown vetoed a bill that would have let local governments ask voters to approve taxes to pay for treatment of tobacco-related illnesses, saying there were already enough tax proposals on the 2016 ballot. Proponents said the new laws showed California is united against Big Tobacco, while industry representatives threatened to push for a referendum to overturn the laws.

Detroit teachers returned to work on Wednesday after a two-day sick-out called by their union to demand full pay for the school year. Union officials said they had received assurances that all teachers would get the money coming to them. A Michigan panel has approved a $500 million bailout and reform plan for the financially strapped school district. The sick-out had closed nearly all Detroit public schools, affecting nearly 45,000 children.

A man returned Wednesday to a Texas trucking company where he had been fired, and fatally shot a former colleague before killing himself, local law enforcement officials said. The man, who was not immediately identified, reportedly shouted, "Y'all ruined my life," then opened fire with a shotgun, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said. The suspected gunman was also armed with a pistol, but only used the shotgun, Hickman said.

Former senator Bob Bennett (R) of Utah died Wednesday after battling pancreatic cancer for months and suffering a recent stroke. He was 82. Bennett was first elected to the Senate in 1992, taking the seat that his father, Wallace F. Bennett, had held from 1951 to 1977. Bob Bennett prided himself on being a statesman willing to compromise to get things done. In 2010, he was defeated by Mike Lee, becoming the first of many incumbents ousted by anti-establishment candidates who changed the dynamics in Congress.

Oil prices rose by about 3 percent early Thursday as a raging wildfire near a Canadian oil-sands production area threatened production. Fighting in Libya also squeezed output there. Canadian authorities declared a state of emergency in Alberta province as the massive wildfire continued to expand after forcing the evacuation of Fort McMurray, an oil town of 88,000 people. Operations at one oil-sands producer were halted Wednesday. The blaze has destroyed 1,600 structures and now threatens the local airport.

Explore More

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.