“It's An Object of Gallows Humor for the Staff”  —  TPM Reader JM on Rick Scott, hospital preparedness and the “Ebola cart” ...

Dallas nurse Briana Aguirre: ‘We never talked about Ebola’ before Thomas Eric Duncan arrived  —  Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital nurse Briana Aguirre, who cared for her friend and co-worker Nina Pham after she tested positive for the Ebola virus, says she can no longer defend her hospital …

How Deadspin F**ked Up The Cory Gardner Story  —  On Wednesday, Deadspin published a story questioning the football bona fides of U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, a Republican who's running for the Colorado Senate seat currently occupied by Democrat Mark Udall.  We f**ked up.

Biden's Son Hunter Discharged From Navy Reserve After Failing Cocaine Test  —  Lawyer Pursued Military Service Relatively Late as a Public-Affairs Officer  —  WASHINGTON—Vice President Joe Biden 's son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine …

Iowa Cops Blow Out Tires, Hold Pregnant Woman In Labor At Gunpoint For Speeding To Hospital  —  Police in Iowa used spike strips to stop a pregnant woman in labor who was rushing to the hospital, and then held her at gunpoint.  —  Police in Iowa used spike strips to stop a pregnant woman …

Here Are The Most Conservative And Liberal Names In America  —  There's... a pattern.  —  Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed  —  The most conservative and liberal names in America are Doyle and Natasha.  —  Crowdpac, a nonpartisan group, focuses on how money and policy work in politics.

A Statement from John Grisham:  —  Anyone who harms a child for profit or pleasure, or who in any way participates in child pornography—online or otherwise—should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.  —  My comments made two days ago during an interview with the British newspaper …

'Who's the idiot with the clipboard?'  Disbelief and panic as mystery man WITHOUT a hazmat suit helps second Ebola nurse board her plane to Atlanta, disposes waste and then climbs aboard  — He carried a clipboard and walked alongside Ms Vinson and healthcare workers who were ALL dressed in hazmat suits

Revealed: how Whisper app tracks anonymous users  — Company shares some information with US Department of Defense  — User data collated and indefinitely stored in searchable database  —  Whisper app rewrites terms of service and privacy policy  —  How the ‘safest place on the internet’ tracks its users

Witness adds new perspective to Ferguson shooting  —  • By Christine Byers cbyers@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8087  —  CLAYTON  • A stream of eyewitnesses has been testifying in secret before a grand jury considering whether to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting …

Latino Voters and the 2014 Midterm Elections  —  Geography, Close Races and Views of Social Issues  —  A record 25.2 million Latinos are eligible to vote in the 2014 midterm elections, making up, for the first time, 11% of all eligible voters nationwide.  But despite a growing national presence …

Obama May Send National Guard to Liberia: Sources  —  Sources said that eight engineers and logistical specialists from the Guard would probably be included in the first deployment.

Everyone In What Looks Like A Group Photo On GOP Governor's Website Is Photoshopped  —  On Gov. Tom Corbett's campaign website.  Update (6:58 p.m.): The Corbett campaign says the “whole website footer graphic” is Photoshopped, including a stock image of a black woman.

Gillespie off the air this week  —  Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie has gone dark on Virginia television, three sources tracking the airwaves told POLITICO.  —  An adviser to his campaign says they plan to go back up on Saturday.  —  The news comes as the Gillespie camp announced …

Meghan McCain: My dad hates Rand Paul  —  Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) daughter said on Wednesday that her father and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) “hate each other.”  —  Meghan McCain appeared on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show to promote her “TakePart Live” talk show on Pivot TV.

Markets Panicked On Wednesday.  Here's Why the U.S. Economy Is OK.  —  Wednesday was an ugly day for the global economy.  British and German stocks each fell around 3 percent.  Greek stocks fell 6 percent.  (That's huge.)  In the U.S., a trifecta of economic indicators—retail sales …