memeorandum: San Juan mayor: ‘Dammit, this is not a good news story’ (Daniella Diaz/CNN)

6:50 PM ET, September 29, 2017

Top Items:

VA chief took in Wimbledon, river cruise on European work trip; wife's expenses covered — Nearly three days into a trip to Europe this past July, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin had attended a Wimbledon championship tennis match, toured Westminster Abbey and taken a cruise on the Thames.

Discussion: Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Politicus USA and Daily Kos

Washington Post:

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigns after criticism for taking charter flights at taxpayer expense — Tom Price, President Trump's embattled health and human services secretary, resigned Friday amid sharp criticism of his extensive use of taxpayer-funded charter flights, the White House said.

Adam Kelsey / ABC News:

Tom Price resigns as Health and Human Services secretary — Tom Price, President Donald Trump's secretary of Health and Human Services, resigned from his post today after it was revealed that he had repeatedly chartered private planes for government travel.

Discussion: Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Associated Press and Splinter

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Health Secretary Tom Price Resigns After Drawing Ire for Chartered Flights — WASHINGTON — Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, resigned under pressure on Friday after racking up at least $400,000 in travel bills for chartered flights and undermining President Trump's promise …

Discussion: Vox, NPR, baker, Politics K-12, Refinery29, CNN, TheBlaze and Politico

Adriel Bettelheim / Politico:
Price resigns from HHS after facing fire for travel

Discussion: Axios, FiveThirtyEight and Raw Story

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico:
Trump: We're going to make a decision on Price's future tonight

Discussion: ABC News and Mother Jones

Josh Dawsey / Politico:
Price's future in serious jeopardy

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Forbes, New York Magazine, Business Insider and Washington Post

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Interior Secretary Zinke: Scrutiny Of My Private Plane Travel ‘A Little BS’

Discussion: Washington Post, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, Shareblue, HuffPost, The Daily Caller, Center for Western Priorities, Daily Kos and IJR

Julia Manchester / The Hill:
Trump telling associates that Price has become a distraction: report

Discussion: Shareblue, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.

CNN:
Trump will make decision ‘sometime tonight’ on Price

Discussion: RedState

Daniella Diaz / CNN:

San Juan mayor: ‘Dammit, this is not a good news story’ — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — Washington (CNN)San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz reacted with shock and anger to acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke on Friday, saying Puerto Rico's recovery is “not a good news story.”

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Trump's Deadly Narcissism — According to a new Quinnipiac poll, a majority of Americans believe that Donald Trump is unfit to be president. That's pretty remarkable. But you have to wonder how much higher the number would be if people really knew what's going on.

Discussion: Latino Rebels, Raw Story, The Root, The Ringer - All, Shakesville and Politicus USA, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

San Juan mayor slams Trump administration comments on Puerto Rico hurricane response — SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The mayor of Puerto Rico's capital sharply criticized a senior Trump administration official Friday for calling the government's disaster response “a good-news story,” …

Discussion: MSNBC, New York Magazine, CNN, ThinkProgress, Politicus USA, Talking Points Memo, TheBlaze, Mother Jones, The Week, Mediaite and Grist

Washington Post:

U.S. response in Puerto Rico pales next to actions after Haiti quake … After an earthquake shattered Haiti's capital on Jan. 12, 2010, the U.S. military mobilized as if it were going to war. — Before dawn the next morning, an Army unit was airborne, on its way to seize control of the main airport in Port-au-Prince.

Discussion: Shareblue, The Root, The Moderate Voice and Hullabaloo

Louis Nelson / Politico:

San Juan mayor hits back at Elaine Duke: ‘This is not a good news story. This is a people are dying story.’ — The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, lashed out at acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke's comment that the Hurricane Maria relief efforts are a “good news story,” …

Discussion: miamiherald, Axios, Hullabaloo and Shakesville

Julia Manchester / The Hill:
San Juan mayor: ‘I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying’

Discussion: ABC News

Oliver Willis / Shareblue:
Trump's Puerto Rico defense: “This is an island surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo and Politicus USA

Avery Anapol / The Hill:
General who handled Katrina response blasts Trump on Puerto Rico

Discussion: IJR, Raw Story, Bloomberg, Common Dreams, AOL and The Daily Caller

taxpolicycenter.org:

A Preliminary Analysis of the Unified Framework — ABSTRACT — The Tax Policy Center has produced preliminary estimates of the potential impact proposals included in the “Unified Framework for Fixing our Broken Tax Code.” We find they would reduce federal revenue by $2.4 trillion …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Business Insider, New York Times, Common Dreams, Daily Kos and Wall Street Journal

Carolyn Y. Johnson / Washington Post:

GOP tax plan would provide major gains for richest 1%, uneven benefits for the middle class, report says — The Republican tax plan would deliver a major benefit to the top 1 percent of Americans, according to a new analysis by a leading group of nonpartisan tax experts that challenges the White House's portrayal of its effects.

Discussion: Business Insider and The Week

Dylan Matthews / Vox:
The numbers are in: Trump's tax plan is a bonanza for the rich, not the middle class

Discussion: Politico, Mother Jones, HuffPost, Common Dreams, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Washington Post, The Week, Fox Business and USA Today

The Hill: Analysis: Tax plan would cost $2.4T, benefit wealthy most

Associated Press:
Report finds GOP tax plan benefits top 1 percent

Discussion: Vox

Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Some manufacturers are already acting on Trump's tax plan

Discussion: Politico

Chris D'Angelo / HuffPost:
Millionaire Trump Adviser Says Americans Can ‘Buy A New Car’ With $1,000 Tax Cut

Discussion: Mother Jones, The Week, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, IJR, ABC News and Washington Monthly

ddhq.io:

Alabama Senate Special Election Poll — Immediately after the runoff Tuesday, we commissioned Opinion Savvy to conduct a poll of the upcoming special U.S. Senate general election in Alabama. Opinion Savvy contacted 590 voters through landline and mobile devices on September 27th and 28th.

Discussion: Daily Kos, TheBlaze and Politicus USA

CNN:

CNN poll: Americans split on anthem protests — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — Washington (CNN)Americans are sharply divided over whether NFL players taking a knee during the National Anthem are doing the right thing to express their views, but a majority agree that President Donald Trump …

Discussion: Daily Wire and FOX2now.com

David Hookstead / The Daily Caller:
NFL Favorability Gets Nearly Cut In Half After Anthem Protests

Discussion: The Rush Limbaugh Show, IJR and SARAH PALIN

Brooke Singman / Fox News:

Melania Trump fires back at librarian who rejected gift of Dr. Seuss books as ‘racist’ — First lady Melania Trump fired back Friday at a Massachusetts elementary school librarian who rejected her donation of Dr. Seuss books, claiming their illustrations are examples of “racist propaganda.”

Rachel Chason / Washington Post:
‘Racist propaganda’: Librarian rejects Melania Trump's gift of Dr. Seuss books

Discussion: Power Line, NBC4 Washington, Boston Globe, Patterico's Pontifications, The Guardian, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, CBS Philly, The Daily Caller, Axios, The Horn Book, SARAH PALIN, IJR and CBS News

Matthew Chapman / Shareblue:

“You should be outraged.” Lt. Gen. response to racism at Air Force Academy shames Trump — Donald Trump's response to the deadly Charlottesville white supremacist riot in August was appalling. It was so bad, in fact, that Trump essentially abdicated any responsibility of his office to unify the nation in a time of division.

Discussion: IJR, Business Insider, Shakesville, PerezHilton, Mother Jones and AOL

Axios:
USAFA superintendent: “Grab your phones”

Discussion: YouTube, Gazette and The Daily Caller

Katherine Schafer / United States Air Force Academy:
Superintendent addresses racial slurs at USAFA

Discussion: The Hill, The Moderate Voice, Daily Wire, TheBlaze, RedState, Axios, NBC News, ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Mediaite, Mashable and Air Force Times

The Cook Political Report:

Why Virginia's Delegate Races Could Be the Most Telling 2017 Elections — The Alabama Senate special election and the Virginia gubernatorial race are near-certain to dominate political pundits' attention this fall. But they could be poor predictors of 2018.

Discussion: Washington Post and New York Magazine

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Bernie backers give Dem incumbents a pass in 2018

Discussion: Washington Post and No More Mister Nice Blog

Nate Cohn / New York Times: Why Retirements May Hold the Key in Whether Republicans Can Keep the House

Michelle Broder Van Dyke / BuzzFeed:

People Are Sharing This Fake Photo Of NFL Players Burning The American Flag — Conservative social media accounts are sharing a photoshopped image that makes it look like an NFL player is burning the US flag while his teammates cheer him on. — The fake picture is being used …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Root and Daily Kos

Jessie Hellmann / The Hill:

Anti-abortion groups fuming over GOP failure to defund Planned Parenthood — Anti-abortion groups fuming over the Republican failure to defund Planned Parenthood as part of ObamaCare repeal are eyeing tax reform as the next vehicle for their cause. — The groups want Republicans …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Ed Kilgore / New York Magazine: Right-to-Lifers Look for a New Hostage for Their Demands

Allan Smith / Business Insider:

In private dinner, George W. Bush criticizes Trump's decision to add North Korea to travel ban — In a private dinner Thursday night, the former President George W. Bush was critical of President Donald Trump's decision to place added travel restrictions on North Korea as part …

Discussion: Axios, IJR, Raw Story and AOL

Los Angeles Times:

Rockfall at Yosemite's El Capitan ‘10 times bigger’ than slide that killed tourist a day earlier — Officials said a sheet of granite the height of a 13-story building dropped off the face of El Capitan in Wednesday's fall. (Sept. 28, 2017) (Sign up for our free video newsletter here http://bit.ly/2n6VKPR)

Discussion: Gizmodo and Fox News