Week In The News: Replacing Scalia, Primaries Heat Up, Apple’s Privacy Battle

An empty seat at the Supreme Court. Primary battles in South Carolina and Nevada. Apple versus the government on privacy. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

How much out-of-the-blue news can one week hold? This one began with conservative bulwark Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia found dead on a Texas ranch. And went all the way to the Pope in Mexico saying, more or less, that Donald Trump is not a Christian, and Trump calling the Pope disgraceful. We’ve got hot races in South Carolina and Nevada. The President headed to Cuba. And Apple versus the FBI. This hour On Point, our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Heidi Przybyla, senior political reporter for USA Today. (@HeidiPrzybyla)

Olivier Knox, chief Washington correspondent for Yahoo! News. (@OKnox)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

USA Today: Clinton tries to avoid another setback in Nevada amid Sanders surge — "Bernie Sanders says he's not just a one-issue candidate who appeals to white voters. The state of Nevada will decide whether he's right. The Silver State holds its Democratic caucuses on Saturday, and a new CNN/ORC poll shows Hillary Clinton and the Vermont senator in a dead heat. If Clinton loses, it would be the third and perhaps most striking sign yet that her path to the Democratic nomination is anything but inevitable."

Yahoo! News: Obama seeks ‘irreversible’ opening to Cuba — "Rubio and other Republicans say that heavy reliance on executive action to bring about policy changes — interpreting existing law in a way that permits more Americans to travel to Cuba, for example — means that whoever takes over the White House in January 2017 could undo much of what Obama will have done. The president’s aides dismiss the idea."

WIRED: Apple’s FBI Battle Is Complicated. Here’s What’s Really Going On — "This isn’t about unlocking a phone; rather, it’s about ordering Apple to create a new software tool to eliminate specific security protections the company built into its phone software to protect customer data. Opponents of the court’s decision say this is no different than the controversial backdoor the FBI has been trying to force Apple and other companies to build into their software—except in this case, it’s an after-market backdoor to be used selectively on phones the government is investigating."