GOP CONVENTION | Gavel falls in Cleveland amid new challenges

CLEVELAND (AP) — Republicans have opened their convention in Cleveland where they’ll nominate Donald Trump to be the party’s presidential standard-bearer in November.

Party chairman Reince Preibus kicked off the four-day event. He almost immediately asked for a moment of silence to remember those who been killed during recent “troubling times.”

The major speakers are slated for the evening when Melania Trump, wife of the candidate, addresses the delegates. She is drawing lots of online interest ahead of her prime time speech at the Republican National Convention.

The wife of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday morning was the most widely searched of the convention’s GOP speakers among Google users.

Google Trends says actor Scott Baio and David A. Clarke Jr., the sheriff in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, also are drawing wide interest.

Baio is a veteran actor who has starred the shows “Charles In Charge,” ‘’Joanie Loves Chachi” and “Happy Days.” Clarke, who is African-American, has spoken out against the Black Lives Matter movement and blames its supporters for inflaming racial tensions.

Meanwhile, a group of dissident conservatives says it’s gathered the signatures needed to force a showdown vote over Republican rules on the GOP national convention’s first day.

Party leaders have been trying to avert the clash in hopes of projecting an image of a united party as delegates gather to formally nominate Donald Trump to be president. They’ve been lobbying to try to head off the clash, and expect to win if such a vote occurs.

But just after the convention was gaveled into session on Monday, a dissident group called Delegates Unbound said in an email that it had gathered statements calling for a roll call by a majority of delegates from 10 states. Under GOP rules, a roll call can be demanded if most delegates from seven states sign such a statement.

Newt Gingrich called those last-ditch efforts by conservative delegates to block Trump’s nomination “silly” and said they should stop.

Gingrich is among those that Trump considered to become his running mate and is the former House speaker.

The Georgia Republican says of that effort, “It’s silly. Trump carried 37 states. He’s going to be the nominee.”

Gingrich spoke to a reporter outside the convention center as delegates filed into the Quicken Loans Arena for Monday’s start of the convention.