There’s being in the minority in politics, and then there’s Sam Slom. He’s the only Republican in Hawaii’s State Senate. The Los Angeles Times says Slom makes up the only single-member caucus anywhere in the country. He says he knows he’ll never get any legislation passed, but he fights on, with what the Times says is an “unyielding capacity to be clobbered.”

The Washington Post reveals that states are basically experimenting when it comes to the drugs they use for executing prisoners by lethal injection. Pharmaceutical companies in recent years have stopped selling drugs used in executions. So states have been improvising with different drug cocktails, with questionable results. One death penalty expert says it sends the message that carrying out death sentences is more important than resolving important ethical and legal questions.

San Jose Mercury News columnist Michelle Quinn says the NBA’s quick decision to oust Clippers owner Donald Sterling is the latest illustration of the importance of reputation in the era of social media. With Twitter trolls ready to pounce at any misstep, companies can’t afford to wait to address sensitive issues. Three CEOs of firms not used to being in the spotlight, Mozilla, GitHub and RadiumOne all resigned or were booted after their actions became fodder for Twitter.

If you use Facebook to log in to other websites or mobile apps, you’ll now be able to limit the data you reveal to just your email address and public profile information such as your name and gender. The social network also says it’s testing a feature that would allow users to log in to third-party sites anonymously. The New York Times says Facebook has figured out a way to respond to users’ privacy concerns, while also offering incentives to app developers who would lose valuable data.

The Louisville Courier-Journal lays out the odds and post positions for the 20 horses taking part in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. California Chrome is a 5-2 favorite to win the 104th running of the most famous horse race in America. The Santa Anita winner will start at post position 5.

The results of USA Today’s annual Save Our Shows Poll are in: Viewers say keep Law and Order: SVU and Parenthood. Parenthood is a critical favorite that hasn’t been a stellar ratings draw, while SVU could fall victim to a battle between creator Dick Wolf and NBC over the size of Wolf’s paycheck.

The Los Angeles Times has a great read about efforts to catch a sophisticated bank robbery crew in the Los Angeles area. The group of five was so good at breaking into banks through the roof - and leaving virtually no traces of their crime. But the plastic back to a walkie-talkie eventually helped detectives track them down…and catch them in the act of another heist.

The New York Times says there are growing doubts about Rio de Janeiro’s ability to be ready for the 2016 Olympics. A top Olympic Committee official called Rio’s preparations the worst he has ever seen. Construction of a major venue has barely begun and polluted waterways pose a challenge for events like sailing, rowing and triathlon. But officials say there is no plan to move the Olympics to another city.

Officials in Oklahoma are reviewing what went wrong in the execution of a convicted killer. The Oklahoman says Clayton Derrell Lockett began to violently convulse as he was being put to death. He died of a heart attack about 40 minutes later. It was later determined Lockett’s vein blew out, rendering the lethal injection drugs ineffective. The execution of a second inmate set for last night was put on hold pending a review.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp take to the New York Times Opinion pages to talk about shale gas. They say the shale gas boom can benefit the planet and the economy, but only if it’s done correctly. They’re calling for a data-driven analysis of shale gas aimed at making its development safer. For example, right now, so much methane is released while extracting shale gas that any environmental benefit to higher natural gas use is lost.

Being against distracted driving is good. Using a cellphone jammer to prevent fellow drivers from being distracted? Well, that can get you in big trouble with the FCC. The Tampa Tribune says the Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $48,000 fine against a man who used a cellphone jammer for two years during his daily commute along Interstate 4 in Florida. Investigators say not only would a device like that block cell phone signals, but it would also block communications among emergency responders.

With wedding season upon us, the Wall Street Journal says even the most awkward person can learn to dance well-enough to be a part of the party. Most instructors say to start with a simple step-touch move and take things from there. One thing to keep in mind for the timid, while you may think all eyes are on you, those on the sidelines are actually watching the best dancers.VIDEO

USA Today asks whether the latest installment in the Spider-Man franchise will have the power to rule the box office the way the first three films in the series did. Since then, theaters have been swamped with superhero and comic book films. Critics say instead of trying to compete with the likes of Iron Man and Captain America, The Amazing Spider-Man filmmakers just need to make a good, smart, funny, exciting movie.

Trying to figure out how to split the rent with your roommates? Try Sperner’s lemma. The New York Times says this old mathematical proposition can be used to fairly divide unequal assets, like apartment rooms of different sizes. It works by using a triangle to create scenarios where you tell which room you’d pick at a variety of prices. The Times article has some interactive features to help you through the process.

The New York Daily News gives us details about Amal Alamuddin, the Oxford-educated human rights lawyer who has apparently convinced the world’s most famous bachelor to walk down the aisle again. The News says George Clooney’s fiancee is “the total package,” with Oxford smarts, New York ambition and Hollywood looks. Among her clients as an attorney, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Pfizer has many reasons for wanting to acquire British rival AstraZeneca for $100 billion. The Wall Street Journal says one of the less obvious reasons is the to save billions of dollars in taxes. Pfizer would likely move its U.S. headquarters overseas - to pay a tax rate. Pfizer would move largely in name only, keeping its operational headquarters in New York.

One of the big claims about gourmet dog food is that it contains fewer (or no) animal byproducts. But Washington Post Health and Science Columnist Brian Palmer says creating food specifically for dogs, rather than using byproducts of food meant for humans, takes a toll on the environment. Dogs are genetically predisposed to eating the things we don’t want to eat - and they can live long and healthy lives eating animal byproducts.

A new medical device is being called a game-changer for those suffering from acid reflux. Surgeons are implanting the LINX device - a small ring with magnetic beads -where the esophagus and stomach meet. The magnets pull the valve closed after food passes, keeping stomach acids from returning to the esophagus. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says so far, about 2000 of the devices have been implanted.

New hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars. But the Charlotte Observer says people with mild to moderate hearing loss can often use pre-owned hearing aids that have been reprogrammed. Hearing aids can be passed on from friends or family members who have upgraded to new ones, and refurbished devices are available from manufacturers for a fraction of the price of new hearing aids.

A Long Island school has cancelled its traditional year-end kindergarten show, saying students need the time to get themselves college and career ready. The New York Post says the school’s principal sent a letter to parents stating the time that would’ve been spent preparing for the pageant would best be used helping the students become strong readers, writers, coworkers and problem solvers.

The LA Times’ Bill Plaschke says the Los Angeles Clippers have the weight of the world on them as the try to regain their focus in their playoff series. They lost game four to the Warrirors last night, amid all the distractions caused by the release of tapes containing racist statements purportedly made by their owner, Donald Sterling.  Plaschke says last night, “The stress of trying to be a national symbol of resilience against a centuries-old demon . . . was overwhelming.”

The New York Times details a $1.5 billion dollar project to build a 32,000 ton arch over the damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine. The project will all but eliminate the risk of further contamination at the site of the 1986 explosion. The arch will be slid into place on Teflon pads, covering the makeshift shelter that was put in place when the reactor melted down.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel catches up with survivors and family members of those killed in a deadly D-Day rehearsal called “Exercise Tiger” that happened 70 years ago today. Eight ships practicing for the invasion were discovered by a German convoy. 749 U.S. service members were killed. Many involved lament that few Americans are aware of the operation - which is overshadowed by D-Day.

Dozens of other countries use radiation to rid their food of pathogens with no reports of human harm. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the technology here in the U.S., yet it has been slow to catch on, according to the Washington Post. The paper says for many people, it conjures up images of mutant, glowing food. Yet dozens of studies say the process can virtually eliminate all bacteria in minutes.

San Francisco Chronicle business editor Thomas Lee says big-money venture capitalists are fueling the tech bubble by dumping a huge percentage of their money into internet-related startups. Meanwhile, biotech and medical device firms are attracting a small percentage of venture capital dollars. One reason investors shy away from biotech and medical devices is that new devices often take a while to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Dozens of early computer-generated art works by the great Andy Warhol have been uncovered - buried on floppy discs since 1985. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says it took three years just to extract the data from the discs. The chief archivist for the Andy Warhol museum says the work is significant because we get to see an accomplished artist struggling with a new medium.

USA Today dedicates its front page to a new study that finds 63,000 bridges in the United States are structurally compromised. The report comes amid fears that the federal Highway Trust Fund, which provides funds for road and transit projects, is running out of money and could become insolvent by the fall unless Congress acts. The fund is paid for by the federal gas tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1993.

In a blow to major shipping carriers, the Wall Street Journal says Amazon is testing its own delivery service in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. The company is using independent contractors to bring packages “the last mile.” The Journal says the move brings Amazon closer to “the holy grail of e-commerce,” same-day delivery.

Recall-damaged General Motors reported an 86% drop in quarterly profits yesterday. But Detroit Free Press columnist Tom Walsh offers five reasons why GM will survive this crisis. Among them, GM has plenty of cash on hand and consumers continue to buy GM cars. The company can also take advantage of the opportunity to interact with customers who bring their cars in for recalls.

Newsday has results of a Census Bureau report that finds voting rates among 18- to 29-year-olds fell to 38 percent in 2012, down from 44.3 percent in 2008. While more young adults may have been motivated to vote in 2008 by the candidacy of Barack Obama, researchers say the toxic political climate that followed may have turned off many young voters in 2012.

The San Antonio Express-News profiles Jake Danklefs, an artist who customizes sneakers for a living. He gets about 20 requests a day for custom designs for which he charges anywhere from $300 to $1000 a pair, and you must include the shoes. He’s designed for LeBron James and Olympic sprinter Justyn Warner among others. Danklefs doesn’t change the integrity of the shoe, but customizes them using paint, decals or laser engraving.

Actor Josh Gad writes a guest column in USA Today decrying the overuse of breaking news alerts by news outlets. He says CNN felt the need yesterday to send an alert to his phone, telling him that Lupita Nyong’o had been named People Magazine’s Most Beautiful Person of 2014. He says editors need to be much more discriminating when deciding what news is worthy of sending out an alert.

It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Google ends up being the company to figure out time travel. But for now, Google is offering a new feature of Street View that allows you to look through images dating back to 2007. If you see an hourglass in the upper left corner of the Street View screen, there is old imagery available. The feature is rolling out globally. The Wall Street Journal says the time machine will eventually be available in almost every location that has a Street View.

The Food and Drug Administration is outlining plans to regulate electronic cigarettes as well as cigars, pipe tobacco and hookahs. The Washington Post says the plans, if adopted, would force e-cigarette manufacturers to stop selling to minors, stop handing out free samples, put warning labels on their products and disclose the ingredients. As of yet, there are no plans to ban online sales or the use of flavorings that critics say are designed to attract young smokers.

The New York Times Business Section says investors are lining up to back a new fitness company called Peloton. Clients buy a $2000, high-end spin bike with a tablet - and then pay $39 a month to pedal along with live-streamed or recorded spin classes from home. The tablets are designed to allow users to compete with friends over Facebook - and will soon offer Netflix streaming. Peloton managed to lure top instructors with the promise of exposure to clients around the world.

Richard Gere is a good actor. So good, that he was mistaken for a homeless person while shooting his latest film on the streets of Manhattan. The New York Post says no one recognized the famous actor - and one woman even gave him a bag of food, which he graciously accepted without breaking character.

The Orlando Sentinel profiles Rob Bianco, a Florida model maker who was so enthralled by the 1964 World’s Fair in New York he actually built a scale model of it as a 13-year-old boy. It was so impressive that the fair’s mastermind, Robert Moses, wrote him a letter of admiration. Now 50 years later, Bianco still makes custom models of buildings from the fair which he sells to collectors. VIDEO

Have you noticed a lemon replacing your lime in a Corona? Blame the great lime shortage. Cases of limes that once sold for $30 are now commanding as much as $200. The New York Post says the shortage has a number of factors, including heavy rains that knocked blossoms off trees, a bacteria that has damaged crops, even hijackings of delivery trucks by drug cartels.

Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen says all along the marathon route yesterday, the overwhelming feeling was a welcome sense of normalcy. Cullen says it was fitting that Meb Keflezighia, a refugee from Eritrea, won the race. Cullen says unlike the brothers accused of bombing last year’s marathon, Keflezighia embraced the opportunities offered by America.

We’ve heard that as we get older we get wiser. But do we get nicer too? Researchers call it the maturity principle. As we age, we tend to report more positive traits like conscientiousness and agreeableness and fewer negative traits like neuroticism and extroversion. Experts say changing your personality is difficult but not impossible. It requires constant attention, similar to the effort needed to lose weight.

If you’ve ever used the Vine app, you’ve probably heard of Logan Paul. The Cleveland Plain Dealer says Paul has more than 3.8 million followers on Vine. The Ohio State University freshman has managed to use his knack for making entertaining six second videos to earn money, working on videos for Pepsi, HBO, Virgin Mobile and Ritz. Now he’s considering making entertainment into a career. VIDEO

The Chicago Tribune details a new study on the effectiveness of a new permanent birth control method for women marketed under the brand name Essure. Researchers say that nearly 10% of women who undergo the sterilization procedure could still become pregnant. That’s nearly four times the risk of pregnancy that comes after the more traditional method of a laparoscopic tubal ligation.

Three years after its disastrous price increase, Netflix is taking a more cautious approach as it looks to raise prices again. The New York Post says the streaming video service will hike the monthly fee for new users by $1 to $2. Current subscribers will continue to pay $7.99 a month for “a generous time period.” Netflix says price hikes will allow it to produce more original programming like “House of Cards and “Orange is the New Black.”

New York Times columnist Nick Bilton says it’s easy to rack up thousands of new followers on Twitter and Facebook. For $5, he was able to gain 4000 Twitter and 4000 Facebook followers. Retweets, likes, shares and comments are all for sale. Bilton says these fake followers can help celebrities and politicians appear more popular than they are, swaying public opinion and even legislative agendas.

The Boston Globe says emotions are running high in the city ahead of today’s marathon. The mood seems upbeat, with many speaking of unfinished business and the desire for a return to normalcy. The paper says it was fitting that the Marathon comes the day after Easter which for many symbolizes resilience.

Asking someone to the prom is getting complicated. The Courier-Journal says elaborate “promposals” are being acted out in schools across America. One student worked with a teacher to create a fake pop quiz that included a question asking his best friend to the prom. One high school junior says promposals have become popular because, “no matter how far she is out of the guy’s league, there’s almost a definite ‘yes’ as long as the promposal is fantastic and unique.”

The Wall Street Journal says more and more mutual funds are getting into the venture capital game, taking chances on Silicon Valley startups traditionally deemed too risky for mutual funds. These risks could pay off big for investors if the companies go public or get sold. But mutual funds typically shy away from such risky propositions, aiming for steady, if not spectacular gains.

A 16-year-old boy somehow survived a flight from San Jose, California to Maui stowed in the wheel well of a jet despite frigid temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen. Officials say the boy was unconscious for most of the flight. The boy was released to child protective services and not charged with any crime.

Olympian “Bladerunner” Oscar Pistorius took acting lessons before taking the stand in his murder trial, according to a new report. The New York Post says South African Sunday Times columnist Jani Allan wrote on her blog that a reliable source informed her about the acting lessons. Allan said Pistorius represents everything the West loathes about white South Africans living extravagant lives.

Have you ever wondered how Major League Baseball comes up with its schedule? 30 teams, 162 games, travel, special requests. In a way it’s mind-boggling. The Baltimore Sun says a team of Johns Hopkins researchers has come up with a program that uses thousands of lines of code to produce a nearly perfect schedule. Now they’re hoping to sell it some of the minor leagues - where schedules are often still done in pencil.

As he tours colleges with his daughter, writer Marek Fuchs says he’s come to realize that all college tours are boring and essentially the same. He writes a guest column in the Wall Street Journal with suggestions on how to improve college tours. For one, he says, don’t let parents and kids take the same tour. Use random kids from campus to lead the tours, instead of highly-trained guides. And let the tours see the campus at night, where much of the excitement takes place.

The New York Times says evidence is mounting that human error contributed to the massive loss of life in the South Korean ferry disaster. The ship’s captain was among the first to flee, and passengers weren’t told to evacuate for more than an hour after the ship began taking on water. Only a couple of the 44 lifeboats were deployed. 271 people remain missing as of Friday.

Scientists say they’ve discovered the first Earth-sized planet that orbits in a habitable zone where liquid water could exist. The Los Angeles Times says the discovery of Kepler-186f is beign called the “tip of the iceberg.” The thinking is, if such planets turn out to be common among the distant stars now being explored, there should be many of them closer to Earth.

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton has announced that she and husband Marc Mezvinsky are expecting their first child. The Washington Post says the 34-year-old made the surprise announcement at an event on New York’s Lower East Side. As her mother looked on, Chelsea said she hoped she would be as good a mom as her mom has been.

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own exotic animal, the Wall Street Journal explains some of the legal hoops you might need to jump through to do so. Most exotic animals fall under the scope of U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations. But state and local laws apply as well. That means if you have a few Llamas or a pet cheetah, you’ll be limited in where you can live if you should ever want to move.

Liking General Mills on Facebook, downloading a coupon or apparently even just buying a box of Cheerios might cost you the legal right to sue General Mills. The New York Times says the food company has added language to its website telling customers they can’t take legal action against the company if they download coupons or connect through social media. Instead, customers must submit to binding arbitration if any disputes arise.

It doesn’t make sense. You do most of your shopping online these days, yet your mailbox is stuffed with more catalogs than ever. The Wall Street Journal explains that retailers are using catalogs as bait - the store window that comes to you - to entice you to go to their website or visit their store and shop.

The New York Post says students trapped on the sinking Korean ferry sent text messages to parents saying their final goodbyes. Nearly 300 people are feared dead. The students were on an overnight trip to a tourist island when the massive ferry apparently hit something and capsized.

In an era when we can have thousands of songs in the palm of our hand, vinyl records are making a comeback. The San Jose Mercury News says sales of vinyl records jumped 32% in the U.S. last year. New record stores are opening and more artists are making their songs available on vinyl. Experts say the upsurge is due to both hipster newcomers and nostalgic old-timers.

The San Francisco Chronicle profiles a group of enthusiasts who seek out misspelled street names stamped into concrete sidewalks in San Francisco. One man who hunts for them says finding one is like finding an Easter egg. But not everyone finds charm in the misspellings. One local resident was shocked to see “BRODWAY” and “BROADWEY” stamped on different corners of the same intersection.

DNA testing has come to the greenhouse. The Washington Post says more and more plant breeders are using DNA tests to screen plants for desirable genetic traits, instead of the traditional way of selecting seedlings by judging how they look and perform. The Post says marker-assisted breeding doesn’t draw controversy because the plant’s genetic boundaries are not crossed.