The Short List: Caitlyn Jenner; Court rules against Abercrombie; Tracy Morgan makes us cry
Kim who? Caitlyn Jenner's 'Vanity Fair' cover breaks the Internet
It's Twitter-official: The Olympic athlete formerly known as Bruce would like you to meet her new transgender self, Caitlyn. Jenner revealed her new name and new look on the cover of Vanity Fair today. And what a look. Just, wowza. "Call me Caitlyn," invited the cover. Twitter quickly did. The trending hashtag #callmecaitlyn drew praise and tributes to Jenner's courage, with only a few nasty-grams. Jenner's official new Twitter handle, @Caitlyn_Jenner, amassed a million followers (and counting!) within hours — surpassing the previous record set by President Obama. Members of the Kardashian clan were among those tweeting their support. Jenner tells Vanity Fair that Bruce was "always telling lies." She describes public appearances after the 1976 Olympics where "underneath my suit I have a bra and panty hose and this and that and (I'm) thinking to myself, They know nothing about me. ... Little did they know I was totally empty inside." Caitlyn, she says, "doesn't have any lies." Read more excerpts from the interview here.
Supreme Court rules for headscarf-wearing Muslim girl, against Abercrombie & Fitch
She wore a headscarf to her interview. She didn't get the job. But today, Samantha Elauf, and other workers who claim religious discrimination in the workplace, got a big win from a Supreme Court ruling. Her headscarf, or hijab, violated Abercrombie & Fitch dress code. Abercrombie's "look policy" affects the type of clothing, jewelry and makeup A&F's sales reps can wear, including atop their heads. But it often grants exceptions upon request. The circumstances in Elauf's case posed a narrow question for the court: Must the job applicant request a religious accommodation, or should the employer recognize the need? During her interview, Elauf never brought up her religion, and her interviewer never asked. Today's ruling says companies can't discriminate against job applicants or employees for religious reasons, even if an accommodation is not requested. Also in today's Supreme Court news: The justices gave a Facebook "rapper" a second chance in a threat case. The court brought the hammer down on the Justice Department over drug deportations. And it blocked a law denying bail to undocumented immigrants charged with felonies. We're still waiting for those big rulings on gay marriage and Obamacare, which should come by the end of the month.
We're used to Tracy Morgan making us laugh. Today he made us pull out the tissues
"I can't believe I'm here — it touches me," Tracy Morgan said in his first public appearance since the accident last June that claimed his friend, mentor and fellow comedian James "Jimmy Mack" McNair. McNair was killed and Morgan seriously injured when their vehicle crashed with a Walmart truck on the New Jersey Turnpike after a show in Delaware. Two other passengers were hurt. For a public figure known for his belly-laugh brand of comedy on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, seeing him break into tears in his interview with the Today Show's Matt Lauer was hard to watch. He spoke candidly about his tough recovery after suffering a traumatic brain injury in the crash. However, his anecdote about his last memories of McNair, who wrote jokes for his Delaware show, was particularly emotional. "The last time I saw Jimmy, he wrote a joke for me — it was a Donald Sterling joke," Morgan said. "I did the joke and everyone was laughing. ... I looked over and Jimmy stood there laughing." Two weeks later, when Morgan came out of a coma, he learned his friend had died. "I don't remember the accident, i just remember when I came to," Morgan said. "Every day I would just watch the accident on YouTube ... I had to know what happened to my friend."
Bad weather grounds solar-powered plane's record-setting non-stop flight to Hawaii
No one ever said air travel is easy. Bad weather has forced the first around-the-world flight in a solar-powered plane to make an unscheduled stop in central Japan, thousands of miles from its original destination in Hawaii. Swiss pilot André Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, on Sunday on what was to be the longest leg of the 22,000-mile-journey: a five-day, 5,079-mile flight to Hawaii. Instead, the Solar Impulse 2 landed today in Nagoya, Japan, according to the plane's Twitter feed. "Unfortunately the current weather window to reach Hawaii has closed," the Solar Impulse website said. "The cold front is too dangerous to cross, so we have decided to land in Nagoya Airfield … and wait for better weather conditions in order to continue." Despite the much-shortened flight, the China-to-Japan flight was still the world's longest solar flight in distance (1,772 miles) and duration (44 hours), according to the Solar Impulse website.
GOP split widens and '16 policy debate roars as Patriot Act provisions expire
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham joined what is likely to be the biggest presidential field in Republican history today, but he seems most focused on one competitor: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Their campaigns for the White House, even if neither wins the nomination, are poised to spark the GOP's most serious debate over national security and foreign policy that the party has held in decades. USA TODAY's Susan Page breaks it all down for us here. Graham's announcement comes on the heels of the recent Senate drama over the Patriot Act, a debate that highlighted sharp divisions within the GOP. (Meanwhile, across the aisle, the Democrats are also divided on some foreign policy issues.)
Also today in Election 2016: Hillary Clinton says she will "officially" launch her campaign on Roosevelt Island in New York City. And the Pew Research Center offers this statistic: 61% of Millennial voters "report getting political news on Facebook in a given week, a much larger percentage than turn to any other news source."
No time to read? Sit back, relax and listen:
Stories you're clicking on today:
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Lion kills tourist at African park
Kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart gives birth to baby girl
Really, you don't need that: Things you should never buy at a yard sale
Extra Bites:
Somewhere, over the rainbow ... Swipe through more great shots from our readers.
For the second time in three days, Serena Williams came back from the brink at the French Open.
The new Tesla has an "underwater mode." Say what?
Would you pay $209 for cheese? These people did, and it sold out lickety-split.
What's in our reading list:
$17B Intel-Altera deal: Internet of Things a factor
Feds release data on highest-paid Medicare providers
Koch urges Obama administration to speed up clemency program
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This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY.
Contributing: Maria Puente, Carly Mallenbaum, Andrea Mandell, Cindy Clark, Richard Wolf, Maeve McDermott, Doyle Rice, Susan Page, Erin Kelly, USA TODAY; Associated Press