memeorandum: Worker who may have handled Ebola specimen on cruise (Gene Sloan/USA Today)

2:10 PM ET, October 17, 2014

Top Items:

Jake Tapper / CNN:

First on CNN: Obama will name Ron Klain as Ebola Czar — Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama will appoint Ron Klain his “Ebola czar,” knowledgeable sources tell CNN. — The president on Thursday signaled his openness to the idea to have one individual coordinating the entire federal response …

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, American Spectator, Althouse, Gawker, Business Insider, The Verge, Daily Kos, Associated Press, Mashable, FOX News Radio and Washington Post

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Ron Klain is a great choice for Ebola czar — Something I learned during the first two years of the Obama administration, when the staff infighting was at its worst: if you wanted to get somebody to say something nice, ask them about Ron Klain. — Klain entered the administration as Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and New York Magazine

A.B. Stoddard / The Hill:
No one at the helm on Ebola — The spread of Ebola in America …

Discussion: The Federalist, Business Insider and Weekly Standard

New York Times:
Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to 2 Vice Presidents, Is Named Ebola Czar

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway, Fox News and Mediaite

Steve Mason / ABC News:

Hospital Worker Who Handled Ebola Samples Is on Cruise Ship — A Dallas health care worker who handled clinical specimens from an Ebola-infected patient is on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, with the worker self-quarantined and being monitored for signs of infection, the State Department said in a statement.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Truth Revolt, 6abc.com and CNN

Greg Botelho / CNN:

Nurse may have had symptoms of Ebola longer than first thought — Are you on the front lines of Ebola? We'd like to hear your story. — (CNN) — A nurse with Ebola may have shown symptoms of the virus as many as four days before authorities once indicated, meaning that she might …

Discussion: Jezebel, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, Instapundit and TODAY

Rachelle Blidner / NY Daily News:
Ebola patient Nina Pham arrives at Maryland hospital after thanking Texas medical staff in emotional video

Discussion: USA Today, New York Magazine, 6abc.com, FOX News Radio and Gawker

New York Times:
Keeping Ebola at Bay

Discussion: Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and Business Insider

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Charles Krauthammer: Ebola vs. civil liberties

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Wall Street Journal:

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 …

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Biden's son discharged from Navy after testing positive for cocaine

Discussion: Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, Truth Revolt, Scared Monkeys and Raw Story

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republican Joni Ernst Admits Why Republicans Really Hate Obamacare — Another secret recording. — Shares — Conservatives have made a series of specific predictions about the effects of Obamacare — overall costs would rise, insurers would flee the exchanges, premiums would go up, the ranks of the uninsured would not even fall.

Discussion: Raw Story, Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality, Washington Center …, msnbc.com and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Joni Ernst's hog-castrating ideology, revealed!

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Des Moines Register, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo and Liberaland

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties — In August, Tom Steyer and seven campaign advisers sat in a small conference room in Coral Gables, Fla., trying to figure out how to save the world. Steyer, who is 57, has a fortune of roughly $1.5 billion …

Discussion: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and Hullabaloo

Jonathan V. Last / Weekly Standard:

Six Reasons to Panic — As a rule, one should not panic at whatever crisis has momentarily fixed the attention of cable news producers. But the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has migrated to both Europe and America, may be the exception that proves the rule.

Discussion: American Prospect

Politico:
Why a travel ban wouldn't work

Discussion: Allen B. West, The Federalist and Mediaite

New York Post:

Alarm after vomiting passenger dies on flight from Nigeria to JFK — Demonstrators demand a travel ban outside the White House on Oct. 16 to stop the spread of the Ebola virus. — A plane from Nigeria landed at JFK Airport Thursday with a male passenger aboard who had died during the flight …

Discussion: Fox News, The Hill, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times, Vox Popoli and Weekly Standard

Belizean:

Belize Confirms Patient With Ebola Symptoms On Cruise Ship Off Its Coast — Reports tonight are that two individuals possibly infected with the Ebola virus are in Belizean waters. Local TV station Channel 7 monitored in the capital City Of Belmopan tonight, reported having credible reports …

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite and The Gateway Pundit

Gene Sloan / USA Today:
Worker who may have handled Ebola specimen on cruise

Discussion: New York Times, Hot Air, New York Magazine and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:

Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of Consumer Finances — The distribution of income and wealth in the United States has been widening more or less steadily for several decades, to a greater extent than in most advanced countries.1 This trend paused during …

Discussion: New York Times, New York Magazine, Guardian and Washington Center …

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

What Markets Will — In the Middle Ages, the call for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land was met with cries of “Deus vult!” — God wills it. But did the crusaders really know what God wanted? Given how the venture turned out, apparently not. — Now, that was a long time ago, and …

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

Insiders Blame Rove for Covering Up Iraq's Real WMD — There's one man, some Republicans say, who kept the public from learning about the chemical shells littered around Iraq. He was Bush's most important political adviser. — Starting in 2004, some members of the George W. Bush administration …

Discussion: Raw Story, American Spectator, BillMoyers.com, American Thinker, Balloon Juice and The Dish

Sylvia Westall / Reuters:

Islamic State training pilots to fly in three jets: Syria monitor — (Reuters) - Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air.

Discussion: Lawfare, Defense One, Outside the Beltway, New York Magazine and Guardian

Irin Carmon / msnbc.com:

This conservative cause is the GOP's worst nightmare — DENVER - There is one word that has defined the Colorado Senate race and it's a word that Republican Rep. Cory Gardner and other GOP candidates across the country are tired of hearing. The word is Personhood.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and National Review

Mark Steyn / Steyn Online:

Protocol Theatre — Thomas Frieden has now got his Protocol Ali routine down pat: … Gotcha. You can't get Ebola on a bus or a plane, you can only give it. Good to know. Thanks, Doc. — The Centers for Disease Control is one of those elite federal agencies that people hitherto assumed was …

Discussion: Power Line, Weekly Standard, Truth Revolt, Daily Mail and CBS Dallas

Rose Eveleth / The Atlantic Online:

Courting Corruption: The Auctioning of the Judicial System — Don't believe the Citizens United pollyannas. Watching money flooding into elections for judges' seat shows how dangerous unregulated campaigns can be. — Every once in a while, David Brooks writes a column in The New York Times that makes one just cringe.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Justice at Stake, Feeds and Bloomberg View

Lee Enterprises / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

St. Louis police officer under investigation following call to protester's employer — • By Christine Byers cbyers@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8087 and Stephen Deere sdeere@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8116 — ST. LOUIS • A woman who criticized police on Twitter says an officer called …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Firedoglake, Liberaland and Raw Story

The Hill:

Ebola, Wall Street stock slide deepen '14 gloom for Dems — The Democrats' midterm prospects took a beating this week as concerns over the Ebola virus and a jittery economy churned up countless grim headlines and darkened an already-dissatisfied national mood.