Here’s your Daily Digest for Monday, March 26, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum got into a heated exchanged with a New York Times reporter Sunday night at a campaign rally in Wisconsin.
According to the New York Daily News, Santorum said that Mitt Romney "is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama” on the issue of healthcare. After the reporter Jeff Zeleny pressed Santorum on his comments, he accused the reporter of distorting his words and cursed at him.
This morning, Santorum laughed off the incident on “Fox and Friends,” a program on the Fox News Channel.
"If you haven't cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you're not really a real Republican is the way I look at it," Santorum said.
Zeleny said that he was simply asking for clarification.
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Thousands are expected at a Sanford, Fla. rally for Trayvon Martin, the teenager who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch member for looking “drugged out and suspicious,” according to the Miami Herald.
Exactly a month after the incident, George Zimmerman, the community watch volunteer accused in the killing, has not been charged. A friend of Zimmerman told ABC's Good Morning America that he was remorseful and would tell the teen's parents he was sorry if he could, according to the Associated Press.
Martin was walking through a gated community to his father's fiance's home after a trip to a convenience store when Zimmerman started following him. The two got into a fight and Zimmerman pulled out his gun, the AP reports.
Craig Sooner, an attorney speaking for Zimmerman, said there's evidence that hasn't come out that shows Zimmerman was acting in self-defense.
In the Twin Cities, students and other activists will protest the killing and racial discrimination Thursday during the “One Million Hoodies March for Trayvon Martin” on Northrop Mall.
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"The Hunger Games" had a record-breaking opening at the box office this weekend, bringing in $155 million — making more money than any debut for a non-sequel film, the LA Times reports.
Other interesting stats about "The Hunger Games":
-The movie drew in large numbers of men and women. About 61 percent of the audience was female, compared to the November opening of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1" which had an 80 percent female audience.
-Though the film was based on Suzanne Collins young-adult trilogy, more than half of the audience that turned up this weekend was over the age of 25.
-It’s the highest grossing film to date for Lionsgate — the independent company that produced the film for a little more than $80 million.