Advice and Dissent: President Obama is expected to announce his Supreme Court nominee today and begin the challenge to Republican leaders who say they won’t even consider a candidate. In an effort to make refusal difficult, the nominee is likely to be someone previously appointed to a judicial position who has passed Congressional review.

Obama said, “I’m doing my job. I hope that our senators will do their jobs, and move quickly to consider my nominee.” Among those who have been considered by the president are the federal appellate judges Sri Srinivasan, Merrick B. Garland and Paul Watford.

The Elephant in the Room: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dropped out of the presidential race last night after taking a shellacking from Donald Trump in his home state primary. Trump won 46 percent to Rubio’s 27 percent.

The politician Trump derided as “Little Marco” told his supporters, “America’s in the middle of a real political storm, a real tsunami. And we should have seen this coming.”

Trump also racked up Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina last night, but lost Ohio to John Kasich, who stays alive, just barely, with a home state win. At 41 percent each, Missouri is too close to call between Trump and Ted Cruz.

The Republicans appear to be headed toward a contested convention in which no single candidate shows up with enough delegates to win the nomination on the first vote. Trump would have to win half the remaining delegates to avoid that.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton swept Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio. At 50-49, Missouri is still too close to call for either Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Clinton now has 1,074 delegates to Sanders’ 774.

Hermit Kingdom: An American college student has been sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea for attempting to steal a propaganda sign from his hotel during a tour. Otto Warmbier, 21, was a junior at the University of Virginia. At the time of his arrest in January he was accused of a “hostile” act “to destroy the country’s unity.”

Warmbier made a tearful plea for leniency. “Please, I have made the worst mistake of my life.” He might not do the full time. North Korea tends to use cases like this for diplomatic leverage.

Brain Damage: In an otherwise obscure Congressional hearing, an NFL official readily admitted yesterday for the first time that repeated blows to the head causes brain damage suffered by many professional football veterans. Jeff Miller, the NFL’s senior VP for health and safety, said, “The answer to that is certainly, yes.”

It’s a stunning reversal for the league, which has been in denial about Chronic Traumatic Encephaly, a deterioration of the brain caused by multiple concussions. Some people compare it to an admission by the tobacco industry that smoking causes cancer.

Nation: Washington DC, which is accustomed to gridlock of a different kind, is in commuter hell today as the DC Metro is shut down for 29 hours for a thorough safety inspection. The closure is the result of an electrical fire earlier this week.

Small Screen: ABC’s latest “Bachelor” Ben Higgins made his choice last night after telling two women he loved them. He told runner-up JoJo Fletcher he had found love, but “I found it with someone else more.”

He pledged his devotion and proposed to flight attendant Lauren Bushnell. “Honey, I’ll be late at the office.”

Fasten Seatbelts: For the first time last month an all female air crew for Royal Brunei airlines landed a plane in Saudi Arabia, a country in which they are not allowed to drive. Saudi Arabia didn’t object to the female air crew, but don’t even think about going to the rental car desk.

Editor’s Note: The full Cuba Diaries are now available at: https://therooneyreport.com/the-cuba-diaries/

For updated pictures of Cuba today go to: https://www.facebook.com/TheRooneyReport