AP reports:

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is giving Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) boost in his push to stop Donald Trump’s march to the Republican presidential nomination.

Pence will endorse Cruz on Friday afternoon, for the state's primary Tuesday. That's according to a Republican official with direct knowledge of the endorsement who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to share the news before the announcement.

Read more.

Thus the D.C. Establishment hates Cruz but is "texting buddies" with Trump.

Of the two GOP presidential hopefuls, therefore, which one is more likely to smite the heart of darkness on Capitol Hill?

The possibility of Donald Trump reaching the "magic number of 1,237 and win the nomination without a contested convention all comes down to next week's primary in Indiana and the big California primary on June 7," Daniel Horowitz writes at Conservative Review.

"If Cruz wins Indiana next week, he will be well on his way to blocking the path for Trump to clinch the nomination outright."

Read more.

Ben Johnson reports at LifeSiteNews:

At hundreds of rallies this weekend, speakers called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the exoneration of David Daleiden.

But at a protest in Sacramento on Saturday, Daleiden himself took the microphone and revealed new details of his court case, his goal, and the day that California agents raided his Orange County apartment to confiscate all his undercover footage of Planned Parenthood, including scenes that had never seen the light of day.

The 27-year-old investigator said the day that California Attorney General Kamala Harris sent agents to his doorstep "started out a day like any other . . . except like it was 1984."

Read more.

The following article by sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas (Austin) appears at LifeSiteNews:

A new study of 6-to-17-year-old children of female same-sex households has been rushed to publication and is now making the rounds at the typical outlets, which are proclaiming that now the social science here is truly, genuinely, totally, finally settled.

The problem is that the study doesn't really accomplish anything near what its adoring fans claim it does. In fact, it all but undermines their wish for consensus.

"Here's what the new study claims," Regnerus writes: "No differences were observed between household types on family relationships or any child outcomes."

But "here’s what the study actually signals," Regnerus counters: "Female same-sex parents report more anger, irritation, and comparative frustration with their (apparently misbehaving) children than do opposite-sex parents."

And then the rest of Regnerus' 1,500-word-plus analysis articulates this thesis.

"People think I have it in for the LGBT community(ies)," Regnerus observes. "I do not." Instead, Regnerus does "have it in for a [so-called] science that refuses to proceed honestly, and instead shelters privileged groups -- as it currently is doing -- with a protective shell of administrators, grant-makers, and editors."

Caring about empirical science rather than politically correct propaganda outcomes may not win Regnerus high approval ratings in San Francisco, but "there are more important things in life than" popularity, the sociologist notes.

But "about the comparative advantages of stably-married households with mom, dad, and children, I am not wrong. It will take more than smoke, mirrors, and shifty rhetoric to undo the robust empirical truth."

As I have noted on radio, in print, and in speaking, test everything, my friends. "Test everything."

Billy Hallowell reports at The Blaze:

Artist Charlie Mackesy recently revealed the details of his journey from atheism to Christianity, telling the CBN News about how a key moment 25 years ago led him to embrace God and truly discover his artistic abilities.

While standing in a London park 25 years ago, Mackesy said that he suddenly had a feeling that "there must be more to this than meets the eye" -- an idea that truly set him on his professional and theological paths. "Jesus quietly introduced me to a journey into finding people really beautiful, which is how my art really began," he told the outlet.

Read more here and here.

Here is Mackesy's website, where you can view his paintings, drawings, lithographs, and sculpture. The "About" page is here.

Join Nancy for a book-signing and presentation Thursday, April 21, 5:30-8:00 p.m. at Evangel Classical Christian School in Alabaster, Alabama.

Ben Shapiro writes at Conservative Review:

The rules of bigotry according to the left represent a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of nonsense.

This week, we learned that if you don't want your small daughter peeing next to a giant man who thinks he is a woman, you are a bigot; if you are a woman who is uncomfortable with a man who thinks he is a woman whipping out his male genitalia to urinate in front of you, you are a bigot; if you are a religious person who doesn't want to participate in an activity you consider sinful, you are a bigot.

At the heart of this insanity is not bigotry but fascism -- the attempt by extremist secularists to use the absolutized idol of government to impose their relativistic will and aberrant desires upon the people of the United States.

The word "bigotry" does have meaning. But unfortunately for rainbow fascists, that meaning can be understood and sustained only where there is a sufficient basis for ethical moral norms that apply across the human condition.

You have that basis in the founding, liberating, and humane vision set forth in the Declaration of Indepdendence, which wisely roots unalienable human rights in a verifiable, transcendant Creator (not the immanent state) who has given rules for freedom.

Very sadly, however, those gripped by transfascism absolutely hate and despise that vision -- and therefore reject the very basis upon which to defy sin and death, alienation and decay.

Nothing but pain and suffering, tears and confusion, hatred and destruction, follow in the wake of this regressive extremism.

Those who hate the rules of freedom necessarily love the rule of bigotry. The transfascist bigot with no basis for love is consummed by a self-inflicted hatred that he, she, or it will never understand.

Insanity over against the basic biological facts of life regarding male and female is but the eve of destruction. And as night follows day, if sanity be not restored, there will be blood. In bathrooms and in streets there will be blood. Watch the evening news as the body politic bleeds out.

Intelligence coupled with humanity revolts.

Related
The Revolt of Intelligence Against "Marriage Equality"

Liberty Counsel has released the following statement:

Liberty Counsel has offered or provided pro bono assistance in 20 states regarding bathroom bills and religious liberty/LGBT issues in order to protect women and children.

Since Governor Pat McCrory recently signed the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act into law, North Carolina is now one of 29 states which do not recognize "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as protected classes at the state level for purposes of public accommodations.

These legislative actions are not to discriminate against homosexual and transgender lifestyles, but rather to protect women and girls.

In September 2012, a police report stated that Clay Scott Francis, a 45-year-old cross-dressing man, undressed and exposed his genitals several times to minor girls in a Washington college women's locker room. Students from a nearby high school and children at a local swimming club shared locker rooms with the college.

When a parent complained, the local district attorney did not pursue charges because he said the "criminal law is very vague in this area." Yet school officials stripped two high school girls’ swim teams of their Federal Title IX rights and they were forced to dress in a smaller room while Francis was given use of the women’s locker room.

Recently, a 51-year-old cross-dressing male in Georgia entered the women's restroom and exposed himself. In Minneapolis, a 15-year-old boy entered the girls' locker room, where five girls were in various stages of undress, as they prepared for a basketball game. The boy disrobed in front of the frightened girls.

When the girls and the parents complained, school authorities said they could not prevent boys from using the girls' locker room because of the so-called "transgender" policy.

"We have no interest in discriminating against anyone," said Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver. "These are all commonsense laws that protect the privacy and safety of women and girls. Allowing men to use the women's restrooms and locker rooms is unconstitutional and very harmful," said Staver.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.

"Texas A&M University officials cleared the way for concealed-carry permit holders to cart their guns into classrooms with 'few major restrictions,' according to the new policy," Cheryl Chumley reports at WND.

Read more.

At Fox News:

A deputy constable in Houston who was shot four times Wednesday night after a suspect approached him from behind and opened fire in an apparent ambush is expected to survive after undergoing emergency surgery on Thursday morning.

Alden Clopton, an 11-year veteran of the force who is married and has children suffered wounds to the abdomen and had a bullet lodged near his heart, authorities said.

"It was completely unprovoked," a constable spokeswoman said. Both deputy constables were in uniform and had marked vehicles.

Read more.

"Trump's policy -- to the extent he has any policy -- is all nationalist, all socialist," Robert Morrison argues in American Thinker.

Ed O'Keefe writes at the Washington Post:

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is close to ensuring that Donald Trump cannot win the GOP nomination on a second ballot at the party's July convention in Cleveland, scooping up scores of delegates who have pledged to vote for him instead of the front-runner if given the chance.

The push by Cruz means that it is more essential than ever for Trump to clinch the nomination by winning a majority of delegates to avoid a contested and drawn-out convention fight, which Trump seems almost certain to lose.

The GOP race now rests on two cliffhangers: Can Trump lock up the nomination before Cleveland? And if not, can Cruz cobble together enough delegates to win a second convention vote if Trump fails in the first?

Read more.

Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

Reverend Franklin Graham criticized rocker Bruce Springsteen for canceling a concert in North Carolina because he opposes the new state law there that prohibits biological males from using women's locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms, stating that Springsteen's pro-homosexual views are not progressive, but conducive to "embracing sin" and worshipping "godless secularism and political correctness."

Read more here.

"Supposedly inspired by one of the teachings of the Prophet Muhamed," three football players "were banned from a match" after Saudi soccer authorities "issued a decree last week banning" a "mohawk like style" haircut called the "Qaza," the U.K. Independent reports.

Loren Gutentag reports at Newsmax:

Although Republican front-runner Donald Trump had announced his plans earlier this week to visit California and attend a press conference on Friday at his golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes, the Los Angeles Times reports the trip has now been canceled amid mounting questions on whether he can capture the presidential nomination without a contested party convention this summer in Cleveland.

"Mr. Trump has rescheduled his California trip and will be campaigning in New York," said Hope Hicks, Trump's spokeswoman. "He looks forward to returning to California in the weeks ahead."

"According to the LA Times, the change in plan comes as Trump and his advisers are trying to regroup after a devastating loss to Sen. Ted Cruz in Wisconsin," Newsmax reports.

Billy Hallowell writes at the Blaze:

Evangelist Franklin Graham is hitting back at PayPal's decision to cancel plans to expand to Charlotte, North Carolina, in protest over the state's enactment of a controversial transgender bathroom bill, saying that the company deserves the "hypocrite of the year award!"

"Congressman Robert Pittenger made a great point yesterday: 'PayPal does business in 25 countries where homosexual behavior is illegal, including 5 countries where the penalty is death, yet they object to the North Carolina legislature overturning a misguided ordinance about letting men in to the women’s bathroom? Perhaps PayPal would like to try and clarify this seemingly very hypocritical position'," Graham wrote on his Facebook page.

Graham "said that the North Carolina law, which was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory late last month, was advanced to help protect women and children against sexual predators, and that he applauds the effort," Hallowell reports.

Related
Bathroom Boycotts Flush Safety of Women and Girls

In a column titled "Perps of 'Far-Right' Hit-and-Run on Muslim Woman Were Muslim," Robert Spencer writes at Frontpagemag.com:

The Footage went far and wide, and was trumpeted everywhere as evidence of "Islamophobia" spreading like Ebola in Europe: a hijabbed Muslim woman was brutally mown down by a speeding car during a protest in the Muslim neighborhood of Molenbeek in Brussels.

A passenger even leaned out of the car after hitting the woman and took a photo.

The gruesome footage spread everywhere as evidence that the "far-right," you see, had declared open season on poor Muslim migrants, and Muslims all across the continent were endangered.

The only problem was that this scenario of white racists preying upon innocent Muslims, so wildly popular in the international media, was false yet again: people in the hit-and-run car were Muslims.

"In today’s politically correct environment, hate crimes are political capital," Spencer explains. "They foster the impression that resistance to Islamic terrorism equals hatred of Muslims, and results in the victimization of innocent people."

Consider, therefore, that "Hamas-linked CAIR and other Islamic supremacist organizations want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they’re the currency they use to buy power and influence in our victimhood-oriented society, and to deflect attention away from jihad terror and onto Muslims as putative victims," Spencer writes. "Want power and influence? Be a victim!"

Read more as Robert Spencer makes that case that this hit-and-run "is just another in a long line of 'Islamophobic hate crimes' that turns out to have been perpetrated by Muslims. Indeed, many of them are actually faked by Muslims."

"He's Not the First Choice of the Most Committed," announces the headline of a Pew Research story by Jessica Martinez and Gregory A. Smith. They write:

Donald Trump is at the head of the Republican field due, in part, to the strength of support from many self-described "born-again or evangelical" Christians in the early primary and caucus states, according to the exit polls.

His success with evangelicals has surprised many observers because of his background; he is a thrice-married man who once described himself as "pro-choice," and appears not to share some of the beliefs embraced by one of the country's most socially conservative religious groups.

But a new Pew Research Center poll shows that among evangelicals, Trump performs far worse with the roughly two-thirds who are most religiously committed.

Whereas half of white evangelical Republican voters who attend religious services less than once a week say they’d like to see Trump get the GOP nomination, just 31% of churchgoing GOP evangelicals say the same.

Click here to read more.

Sandy Fitzgerald reports at Newsmax:

Two polls released over the weekend for the Wisconsin primary election show Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the lead over Donald Trump heading into Tuesday's vote.

According to a CBS/YouGov poll released on Sunday, Cruz came out over Trump by 43 percent to 37 percent, and in a  Loras College poll out on Saturday, Cruz took the lead by 38-31 percent.

Click to read more.

Jan LaRue of the American Civil Rights Union writes at American Thinker:

Here’s a question for the mayors and governors who are boycotting North Carolina because of its single-sex public restroom law:

"Is your taxpayer-funded, executive office bathroom open to the public, including every Tom, Dick and Harry pretending to be 'Mary'"?

Read more.