memeorandum: Progressive political group obtains cellphone numbers from Virginia Tech, Radford students for electoral campaigns (The Roanoke Times)

12:30 PM ET, October 4, 2017

Top Items:

Tillerson's Fury at Trump Required an Intervention From Pence — WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to multiple senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time.

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Furious Republicans are working hard to make Trump's Russia scandal disappear — THE MORNING PLUM: — The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a news conference on Wednesday afternoon to provide a “progress report” on its investigation into Russian sabotage …

Discussion: Politico, IJR and Washington Times

CBS News:
Rex Tillerson refutes report that he was on verge of resigning over the summer

Discussion: RedState, Talking Points Memo, Deadline, Romper, Joe.My.God., Daily Kos, Jamie Dupree, CBS Dallas, Mashable, Mediaite and IJR

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Tillerson: I have ‘never’ considered resigning

Discussion: ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and Mediaite

Nik Steinberg / Politico:
Rex Tillerson Is Running the State Department Into the Ground

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

David Reid / CNBC:
Tillerson reportedly described Trump as a ‘moron’ and was set to resign in July

Discussion: ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Axios, Business Insider, Romper, IJR, Mashable, Washington Free Beacon, The Week, The Daily Caller, Boing Boing, The Guardian and Mediaite

Jeffrey Lewis / Foreign Policy:
Donald Trump Threatened North Korea After Completely Imaginary Negotiations

Discussion: New York Times, Just Security, CNBC, War on the Rocks, The Atlantic, Weekly Standard and Outside the Beltway

Brian Ross / ABC News:

Portrait emerging of Las Vegas shooter as man ‘descending into madness’ — In the months before his deadly rampage, 64-year old Stephen Paddock was a man “descending into madness,” according to a person briefed on new findings in the investigation. — New details are emerging …

Discussion: Associated Press

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

If Only Stephen Paddock Were a Muslim — If only Stephen Paddock had been a Muslim ... If only he had shouted “Allahu akbar” before he opened fire on all those concertgoers in Las Vegas ... If only he had been a member of ISIS ... If only we had a picture of him posing with a Quran in one hand and his semiautomatic rifle in another ...

Discussion: Althouse, Political Wire and National Review

Avi Selk / Washington Post:

What a macho, gun-packing Instagram star did when he was caught in the Las Vegas shooting … Guns and women got Dan Bilzerian where he is today — the so-called “King of Instagram,” with nearly 23 million followers, a mansion full of guns and a hot tub full of women.

Discussion: IJR

David Smith / The Guardian:

Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend returns to US as police reveal details of his planning — Authorities investigating the Las Vegas mass shooting, the deadliest in modern US history, are preparing to question the girlfriend of gunman Stephen Paddock who has flown back to America after being named …

Discussion: BillMoyers.com, Daily Wire, KXAN-TV, Shot in the Dark, NBC News and Power Line

Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times:

At his local Starbucks, Las Vegas shooter remembered for berating his girlfriend — The workers behind the counter at the Starbucks inside the Virgin River Casino in Mesquite, Nev., winced whenever Stephen Paddock and his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, lined up for their usual beverages.

Discussion: Shakesville, NBC News, The Week, Raw Story and FOX6Now.com

Yahoo! News:

‘He sent her away’: Sisters of Las Vegas gunman's Australian girlfriend break their silence — Marilou Danley's sisters have said they believe she was “sent away” so she could not interfere with her boyfriend's plan to open-fire on thousands of people in the Las Vegas massacre.

Discussion: Raw Story and Conservative News Today

Wesley Lowery / Washington Post:

Two strangers bond over country music and beer. Then the gunshots started. — Up-and-coming country star Luke Combs had just started his set on the smaller of the two festival stages when Kody Robertson, an auto parts salesman from Columbus, Ohio, squeezed in at the end of the bar next to Michelle Vo …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and IJR

NBC News:
Marilou Danley, Girlfriend of Las Vegas Gunman, Back in the U.S. for Grilling

Discussion: New York Times, Business Insider, SARAH PALIN, NBC News, Conservative News Today, AOL, Scared Monkeys, TMZ.com, The Last Refuge, CANNONFIRE, Daily Wire, TheBlaze, RedState and Axios

Washington Post:
New details emerge about Marilou Danley, girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Week, NPR, Mother Jones, Snopes.com, NBC News, neo-neocon, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller

Mark Osborne / ABC News:
Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, tells family she has a ‘clean conscience’

Discussion: The Daily Caller, AOL and Conservative News Today

CNN:
Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend ‘sent away’ before his massacre

Discussion: Townhall.com, IJR, Guns.com, Washington Post, FOX6Now.com, WPMT FOX43, TheBlaze, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, Reuters, WTVR-TV and Daily Wire

New York Times:
Meticulous Planning by Las Vegas Gunman Before He Opened Fire

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, The Guardian, Daily Wire, New York Daily News, Guns.com, Democrats.com, Business Insider and Hit & Run

Washington Post:
Police say Las Vegas gunman planned ‘extensively,’ used cameras to monitor police as they approached

Discussion: The Week, NPR, Daily Breeze, Power Line, IJR, CityLab, ABC News, Refinery29, Raw Story, Daily Kos, AOL, Talking Points Memo, Q13 FOX News, San Bernardino Sun and Daily Wire

ProPublica:

Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Were Close to Being Charged With Felony Fraud — New York prosecutors were preparing a case. Then the D.A. overruled his staff after a visit from a top donor: Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz. — In the spring of 2012, Donald Trump's two eldest children …

Discussion: Vox, Talking Points Memo, Above the Law, AOL, Joe.My.God., Mediaite, Raw Story and The Week

Justin Sink / Bloomberg:

Trump Suggests Puerto Rico's Debt May Need to Be ‘Wiped Out’ — ‘We are going to work something out,’ president says on Fox — Trump visited island earlier Tuesday to survey storm damage — President Donald Trump suggested that the government debt accumulated by bankrupt Puerto Rico …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Toronto Star, The Resurgent, twitchy.com, Business Insider and Politico

Associated Press:

AP-NORC Poll: Few approve of Trump's Puerto Rico response — Americans are more likely to approve than disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling hurricane relief in Florida and Texas, but it's a different story when it comes to Puerto Rico. — According to a new poll …

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios, Politico, Deadline and The Week

New York Times:
White House Dials Back Trump's Vow to Clear Puerto Rico's Debt

Discussion: IJR, The Hill, The Week and miamiherald

Washington Post: A tale of two Puerto Ricos: What Trump saw — and what he didn't

Chris Cillizza / CNN:
Trump's Puerto Rico event was way worse than his tweets

Discussion: Gothamist, Daily Kos, Associated Press, CANNONFIRE, Talking Points Memo, Common Dreams, The Daily Caller, No More Mister Nice Blog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Times, The Week, The Atlantic and Vox

CNN:

Exclusive: Russian-linked Facebook ads targeted Michigan and Wisconsin — (CNN)A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump's victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Washington Times, The Atlantic, Engadget, CNBC, FOX6Now.com, twitchy.com, Shareblue, Mashable and Political Wire, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:
Hill investigators to tell public what they've learned about Russia's interference and what happens next

Discussion: Washington Post, Dispatches From the … and Joe.My.God.

Liz Moyer / CNBC:

Someone dressed like the Monopoly guy is photobombing the Senate's Equifax hearing — A person dressed in a black top hat and bushy white mustache, occasionally putting a monocle on, sat in the audience of the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the Equifax data breach. — The Monopoly guy has gone to Washington.

Discussion: Raw Story and Common Dreams

New York Times:
Equifax Breach Caused by Lone Employee's Error, Former C.E.O. Says

Discussion: RedState and Associated Press

Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
6 Fresh Horrors From the Equifax CEO's Congressional Hearing

Discussion: The Daily Caller, ABC News, Krebs on Security, FOX6Now.com, The Hill, ThinkProgress, TheStreet, Engadget, Instapundit, Politico, Gizmodo, The Verge, SARAH PALIN and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Leah Libresco / Washington Post:

I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise. — Leah Libresco is a statistician and former newswriter at FiveThirtyEight, a data journalism site. She is the author of “Arriving at Amen.” — Before I started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate me.

Discussion: Townhall.com, Hit & Run, Content Archive, CNN, NewsBusters, Cafe Hayek, New York Times, Daily Wire, Axios, Washington Free Beacon and FiveThirtyEight

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Rep. Lewis: ‘No amount of blood’ will push Congress on gun control

Discussion: ABC News, Vox, KTFT and The Trace

Politico:
The gun lobby: See how much your representative gets

Discussion: Daily Kos and twitchy.com

Statesman Journal:

Ex-Trump adviser Paul Manafort conspired to mislead bankruptcy court, son-in-law charges — Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued two new subpoena in the investigation into President Trump's campaign ties to Russia. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@FantasticMrNate) reports. Buzz60 — CONNECT

The Roanoke Times:

Progressive political group obtains cellphone numbers from Virginia Tech, Radford students for electoral campaigns … Radford University and Virginia Tech turned over documents containing personal information, including names, addresses and cellphone numbers of about 40,000 current students …