The tamest sex scandal in recent memory just got a little less tame. [Gawker]
catholic church
What Does the Pope’s Support for Civil Unions Really Mean?
THE FEED
opioid crisis
OxyContin Maker Will Plead Guilty to Criminal Charges, Again
Surely Trump won’t go after Romney over this
Mitt Romney tells @mkraju he has already voted in this year’s election: “I did not vote for President Trump.” He wouldn’t say if he voted for Biden or wrote someone else in.
—@passantino
supreme court
The Supreme Court Is Waging War on Democracy — and Voters Approve
coronavirus stimulus
Will McConnell Really Blow Up a Trump-Blessed Stimulus Deal?
A dreadful poll for Trump and Ernst
🚨New Monmouth poll of IOWA (change from 9/18-22):
Trump 47 (-2)
Biden 50 (+4)
Senate
Ernst (R-inc) 47 (+1)
Greenfield (D) 49 (-)
(Oct. 15-19, High turnout LVs)https://t.co/pNpBVKsOGL
—@JacobRubashkin
Trump 47 (-2)
Biden 50 (+4)
Senate
Ernst (R-inc) 47 (+1)
Greenfield (D) 49 (-)
(Oct. 15-19, High turnout LVs)https://t.co/pNpBVKsOGL
fake news
Trump Team Keeps Whining About 60 Minutes Interview Two Weeks Out From Election
More details in the Ghislaine Maxwell case are coming on Tuesday
Transcripts of interviews lawyers conducted with the ex-girlfriend of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein must be released by Thursday morning, a judge said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska’s order allows the public release of transcripts of two days of depositions in 2016 of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and related documents, along with the deposition transcript of an anonymous accuser.
This is Obama’s first in-person campaign event for Biden
Former president Barack Obama is hitting the campaign trail Wednesday, with plans to appeal to Black voters in Philadelphia on behalf of Democratic nominee Joe Biden. President Trump is scheduled to return to the battleground state of North Carolina.
Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), is also campaigning in the Tar Heel State, while Vice President Pence has stops planned in New Hampshire and Ohio. Biden has advertised no events of his own as he prepares for Thursday’s final debate with Trump.
Trump’s absurd attack on Democratic officials may wind up hurting the most vulnerable
The White House is considering slashing millions of dollars for coronavirus relief, HIV treatment, screenings for newborns and other programs in Democratic-led cities that President Donald Trump has deemed “anarchist jurisdictions,” according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
New York, Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., and Seattle could lose funding for a wide swath of programs that serve their poorest, sickest residents after the president moved last month to restrict funding, escalating his political battle against liberal cities he’s sought to use as a campaign foil.
The Department of Health and Human Services has identified federal grants covering those services, which are among the nearly 200 health programs that could be in line for cuts as part of a sweeping government-wide directive the administration is advancing during the final weeks of the presidential campaign and amid an intensifying pandemic Trump has downplayed.
… The HHS list offers the most detailed picture yet of the administration’s efforts to quickly comply with the Trump directive and the potentially large cuts facing these cities even as the pandemic strains local budgets. It isn’t immediately clear what criteria the budget office will use to evaluate the grants — or how or when cuts may be made.
trump country
The Mask Backlash That Could Oust a Democratic Congressman
covid-19
New Studies Show Major Drop in COVID-19 Mortality Rates
the national interest
Alleged China-Fighter Donald Trump Has Secret Chinese Bank Account
vision 2020
What Is Biden’s Actual Position on Court-Packing?
vision 2020
GOP Hopes That Amy Coney Barrett Would Fire Up the Base Fizzled
the top line
The Pandemic Has Men Shaving Less, But Not Women
Tentative good news as hospitalizations spike around the country
Two new peer-reviewed studies are showing a sharp drop in mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The drop is seen in all groups, including older patients and those with underlying conditions, suggesting that physicians are getting better at helping patients survive their illness.
“We find that the death rate has gone down substantially,” says Leora Horwitz, a doctor who studies population health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and an author on one of the studies, which looked at thousands of patients from March to August.
The study, which was of a single health system, finds that mortality has dropped among hospitalized patients by 18 percentage points since the pandemic began. Patients in the study had a 25.6% chance of dying at the start of the pandemic; they now have a 7.6% chance. That’s a big improvement, but 7.6% is still a high risk compared with other diseases, and Horwitz and other researchers caution that COVID-19 remains dangerous.
Klain played a key role in the Obama administration’s economic recovery efforts and its response to the Ebola crisis
Longtime Democratic aide Ron Klain is the leading candidate to be presidential nominee Joe Biden’s chief of staff if Biden wins the election, according to several people familiar with the situation. …
He’s widely respected by Democrats across the party’s ideological spectrum and progressives say they would be comfortable with him in that role.
Others under consideration include Steve Ricchetti, also a former Biden vice presidential chief of staff and chairman of his presidential campaign, and Jeff Zients, a co-chair of Biden’s transition team. But Klain, who first worked for Biden during his short-lived 1987 presidential campaign, has the candidate’s trust and more pertinent experience than anyone else who might be considered for the job, the people said. Another name that has been floated is Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, an early Biden endorser and campaign co-chair.
breonna taylor
What Really Happened with the Breonna Taylor Grand Jury?
poll position
The Three States With Both Close Presidential and Senate Races
politics
Trump Donors Blew $1 Billion on the QVC President
vision 2020
What We Know About the Final Trump-Biden Debate: Time & How to Watch
coronavirus stimulus
Why Trump Should Just Cave to Pelosi on Stimulus Deal
Some pronounced optimism from the Speaker
NEWS: @SpeakerPelosi on @BloombergTV says they are “on a path” to a stimulus deal. Expects to deliver liability protections counteroffer to Mnuchin at 3pm. Sees negotiators are “within range” on UI, health provisions
—@elwasson
The First Lady has not recovered entirely from Covid
From Melania Trump chief of staff Stephanie Grisham: “Mrs. Trump continues to feel better every day following her recovery from COVID-19, but with a lingering cough, and out of an abundance of caution, she will not be traveling today.”
—@steveholland1
antitrust
DOJ Launches First Major Antitrust Case Against Google
pivot
China Is Now the Amazon of Geopolitics
Quite a statistic
More people have now early voted in TX than the number of people who voted for Donald Trump in TX in 2016.
—@Redistrict
the national interest
Why Trump Ended the Task Force and Put a Kook in Charge of the Coronavirus
Barr is definitely going to hop right on this
Two weeks before the election, President Trump says on Fox News that Attorney General Bill Barr should “appoint somebody” to investigate Joe Biden. “We’ve gotta get the attorney general to act. He’s gotta act. And he’s gotta act fast. He’s gotta appoint somebody.”
—@kaitlancollins
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