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[h=4]The Short List: Cinco de Mayo; Huckabee in the race; Google's big move[/h]Out of the loop today? We've got what you missed.
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Pro tip: Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day
It's Cinco de Mayo! But what, exactly, is being celebrated? Cinco de Mayo, which means May 5 in Spanish, is probably one of the most misunderstood Mexican holidays, USA TODAY Network reports. Many think it's Mexico's independence day. It's not. (That's celebrated Sept. 16.) As you mix up margaritas and feast on chips and guacamole (hey, did you see this recipe — the Internet was freaking out about it yesterday), we bring you the facts: Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over the French forces of Napoleon III on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla. Mexico had trouble paying back war debts to European countries, and France had come to Mexico to collect that debt. Most non-Mexican Americans have "no idea" about the day's history, says Carlos Tortolero, president of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. But hey, why not celebrate. Just don't do these four things, please.
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USA TODAY'S Lori Grisham fills us in on what we may not know about Cinco de Mayo and tequila. USA TODAY
Families condemn Mohammed cartoon contest attack; Islamic State claims it
"Just like everyone in our beautiful country, we are struggling to understand how this could happen." Those words are from a statement issued by the family of Elton Simpson, one of the two men fatally shot by police at a Mohammed cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, on Sunday night. And as their families condemned the attack today, the Islamic State took credit for it — although it wasn't clear whether the militant group's leaders had advance knowledge of the attack. Simpson and Nadir Soofi shared an apartment in Phoenix. Soofi's mom, who lives in Houston, said she knew her son lived with Simpson and had heard they'd visited websites with some extremist views. But she never thought him capable of an attack. "We had no idea that he was planning to do this," she said.
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The family of Elton Simpson, the accused gunman killed by police outside of a Mohammed cartoon exhibit in Garland, Texas, called the attack senseless. VPC
Huckabee enters GOP race with a folksy speech from his hometown of Hope
Sorry, Mike Huckabee, all those Christian conservative voters aren't necessarily going to flock to you this time. Eight years ago, the former Arkansas governor won the opening Iowa GOP caucuses by appealing to the state's evangelical voters. This time, the 2016 hopeful — who announced his presidential run today from Hope, Ark. — has some company. A half-dozen other contenders will target evangelical voters by talking openly about their faith and its importance in their lives and approach to governing. So what else should you know about the bass-playing Huckabee? Here are six things to get you started.
Did you know there was a big election in the U.K. this week? That's what we thought
Forget about Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge (also known as her royal adorableness). The biggest news this week in the U.K. is Thursday's general election, the first since 2010. It's a huge deal in Britain, even though you're probably not paying much attention here in the U.S. We can help. The election: People vote for all 650 members of the House of Commons. The party that wins a majority of seats (326), wins outright and its leader becomes prime minister. But polls show no party will win outright, so one of the leading parties will need to piece together a ruling coalition, and that could take weeks. What happened last time: In the last election, the Conservative Party won the most seats (306) but not an outright majority. That led to the first formal British coalition government since World War II. Why everything is fuzzy again: Polls show neither of the two major parties — Conservative and Labor — is likely to reach the majority threshold, and there's a big question of which party could pull together a coalition. The main candidates: Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, and Edward Miliband, leader of the Labor Party. Why you should care: The U.S. and Britain are longtime allies on numerous economic and military issues, so the U.S. pays close attention to who's in power and the power of the U.K.
British Prime Minister David Cameron campaigns at a rally in St Ives, Cornwall, on May 5, 2015.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: STR, EPA)
Google doesn't want to be full of mostly white and Asian men. So this is what it's going to do
Google is known for thinking big — really big. Its latest project: Figuring out how to get more women and minorities into tech, and it's spending $150 million in 2015 to do it. That's an important move, since the industry not too long ago used to shrink from even talking about diversity. It's never been much of a secret that tech companies are largely staffed by white and Asian men. People just seemed to accept the lack of women, African Americans or Hispanics as part of tech culture. That changed about a year ago when Google decided to kick off a more open dialogue about diversity by publishing a report revealing the lopsided demographics of its employees. Next came a wave of similar reports from Facebook, Apple, and Yahoo. So what is Google's plan? The short game is doing things like trying to recruit from more diverse schools. The long game is expanding the pool of women and minorities going into computer science. It's good news, since a lot of companies are actually watching Google for cues on what they can do. Read more of Jessica Guynn's exclusive interview with Google's vice president of people operations to learn about the company's diversity initiative.
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Nancy Lee, Google's vice president of people operations, explains why the Internet giant will spend $150 million this year to make the workforce at Google
and in the tech industry more diverse. USA TODAY
Short on time? Get all the top stories in the audio version of #TheShortList in the player below:
Stories you're clicking on today:
Tiger Woods coming off a 'brutal' three days before Players Championship
Phoenix woman, 22, accused of killing boyfriend
Why Kentucky's John Calipari is giving up on platoon system
California water conservation effort failing badly
10-year-old rape victim denied abortion
Extra Bites:
Forget the Met Gala. Look at this beauty. Swipe through more great shots from the Day in Pictures.
A white peacock fans its feathers at the Nogeyama Zoo in Yokohama, Japan.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP/Getty Images)
Speaking of the Met Gala (basically the fashion Oscars), here's who slayed last night. Check out all the looks below.
This is why Ryan Gosling is the best ever.
The delivery driver is suddenly becoming more closely watched than Kim Kardashian.
What else is on our reading list:
AG Lynch meets with Gray family, officials in Baltimore
Someone stole $1B from Moldova — an eighth of its GDP
Traditional retirement possibly becoming a thing of the past
We all need a little distraction at some point during the day (what else are smartphones for?), so add DISTRACTME on the YO app. It'll be fun, we promise.
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This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY.
Contributing: Susan Page, Martha T. Moore, Catalina Camia, Jessica Guynn, Michael Wolff, Kim Hjelmgaard, Maria Puente, John Bacon, Emily Brown, USA TODAY, Marie Saavedra, WFAA-TV Dallas-Fort Worth, Jolie Lee, Special to USA TODAY
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