WASHINGTON (AP) _ Donald Trump has reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president. Trump was put over the top in the Associated Press delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP today they will support him at the convention. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president. Trump has reached 1,238. With 303 delegates at stake on June 7, Trump will easily pad his total, avoiding a contested convention this summer.
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The Tampa Bay Lightning play the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The winner goes on the play the San Jose Sharks for the Stanley Cup. Tonight’s game is in Pittsburgh at 8 o’clock.
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An increasingly vocal Hispanic community is speaking out in favor of Donald Trump, even in the face of resentment and suspicion from friends and family. Meanwhile, a disconnect is nagging Hillary Clinton. The Democratic front-runner is telling voters not to trust Trump, but a new government report about her usage of a private server as secretary of state is complicating that message of who to trust.
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STATES SUE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OVER TRANSGENDER DECREE. Texas and 10 other states are challenging the directive to U.S. public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — News reports say pro wrestler Hulk Hogan’s legal battle against Gawker has been secretly backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Hogan won a $140 million invasion-of-privacy verdict two month ago against Gawker for posting a sex tape of him. Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, was outed as gay by a Gawker-owned website in 2007.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Nearly a dozen health insurers are proposing rate increases averaging 13 percent for 2017 Florida plans sold on the exchanges created under President Barack Obama’s health care law, but that won’t necessarily mean big consumer price hikes. State insurance officials estimated the average increase at closer to 18 percent, but neither would say how they arrived at their figures other than to say they were both weighted.
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MIAMI (AP) — Fewer people are getting past perimeter security at Florida’s four busiest airports. In 2015, there were four perimeter security breaches at airports serving Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale, down from nine in 2014. The 2015 total included three breaches in Miami and one in Tampa. The Associated Press gathered the data for an investigation that concluded that a breach happens on average every 10 days at one of 31 major airports AP studied. Airports say their defenses are strong.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Tallahassee police are refusing to disclose any details about why a South Florida man was arrested in the killing of a Florida State University professor as they continue investigating the case. Sigfredo Garcia appeared in a Broward County court Thursday after he was arrested in the slaying of FSU professor Daniel Markel.
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WAYNESBORO, Ga. (AP) – A Georgia prosecutor says she intends to seek the death penalty against a man charged with murder after leading authorities to the body of a missing Florida priest. District Attorney Ashley Wright filed notice this week that she will seek the death penalty for 28-year-old Steve James Murray of Jacksonville, Florida, in the April 18 shooting of the Rev. Rene Robert of St. Augustine, Florida.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – A June hearing is set for a Florida deputy who is raising a “Stand Your Ground” defense in his manslaughter case over the fatal shooting of a black man who was carrying an air rifle. A judge confirmed the June 13 date at a hearing Thursday for suspended Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Peter Peraza.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is inflating a new experimental room at the International Space Station, the world’s first pump-it-up room for astronauts. The expandable chamber was delivered last month by SpaceX. On Thursday, astronaut Jeffrey Williams opened a valve, allowing air to flow into the inflatable pod, called BEAM. That stands for Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. Bigelow Aerospace is behind the test flight. The company foresees launching inflatable pods for tourists, as well as astronauts bound for Mars.
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KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is giving a tour of the state lab that is testing mosquitoes in Florida for the Zika virus. Putnam on Thursday is showing off the tools in the lab that will be used to identify and combat the Zika virus.
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Disney World’s Magic Kingdom continues to be the top amusement park draw in the world with 20.5 million visitors in 2015, according to a report released Wednesday. Disneyland in Anaheim, California was No. 2 with an estimated 18.3 million visitors, followed by Tokyo Disneyland, which had an estimated 16 million, according to a report from Themed Entertainment Association and economics practice AECOM.
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Johnny Depp’s wife files for divorce. Amber Depp, an actress known as Amber Heard, cites irreconcilable differences. The two have been married 15 months and have no children together.