Las Vegas Strip shooter targeted aviation fuel tanks, source says  —  Fuel tanks near the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, pictured on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, were targeted by Strip shooter Stephen Paddock when he fired on concert-goers from his Mandalay Bay room Sunday night.

‘Death spiral’: Tillerson makes nice but may not last long with Trump  —  The moment was as remarkable as it was unprecedented: A sitting U.S. secretary of state took to the microphone to pledge his fealty to the president — despite his well-documented unhappiness in the job and the growing presumption …

Pro-Life Rep. Tim Murphy Will Not Seek Re-Election After Reports Of Urging Abortion  —  PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Congressman Tim Murphy, of Upper St. Clair, has reached a decision about his political future.  —  In a statement to KDKA's Jon Delano, the embattled anti-abortion Republican says he won't seek re-election.

The Republican Party Isn't Cracking Up.  It's Getting Even Stronger.  —  Roy Moore and other Bannonite extremists won't doom the GOP.  —  Roy Moore's victory in Alabama's Republican primary last week puts him in position to become the state's next junior senator and also a major embarrassment to the GOP.

Sally Yates, Preet Bharara Stress High Bar for Criminal Charges in Russia Probe  —  Prosecutors fired by Trump say Special Counsel Robert Mueller has challenging task and may not bring charges  —  Two of the most high-profile law-enforcement officials fired by President Donald Trump …

Repeal the Second Amendment  —  I have never understood the conservative fetish for the Second Amendment.  —  From a law-and-order standpoint, more guns means more murder.  “States with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides …

White House walks back Trump's Puerto Rico comments as Wall Street reels  —  NEW YORK — On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump casually told Geraldo Rivera on Fox News that the United States would have to wipe out $75 billion in debt owed by Puerto Rico to bondholders around the world.

3 Special Forces Troops Are Killed and 2 Wounded in Ambush in Niger  —  WASHINGTON — Three United States Army Special Forces were killed and two were wounded in an ambush in Niger on Wednesday while on a routine patrol with troops they were training from the West African nation, American military officials said.

Democrat Northam leads Republican Gillespie in race for Virginia governor, new poll finds  —  A relatively unified party base gives Democrat Ralph Northam a clear lead over Republican Ed Gillespie heading into the final month of the Virginia governor's race, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll.

Harvey Weinstein Lawyers Up for Bombshell New York Times, New Yorker Stories  —  Harvey Weinstein has hired a high-powered team of attorneys to push back on soon-to-be-published bombshell stories from the New York Times and the New Yorker detailing sexual allegations and improper workplace behavior against him.

Black Lives Matter Students Shut Down the ACLU's Campus Free Speech Event Because ‘Liberalism Is White Supremacy’  —  Students affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement crashed an event at the College of William & Mary, rushed the stage, and prevented the invited guest …

Russia Needed Help Targeting U.S. Voters, Two Ex-CIA Chiefs Say  —  Two former heads of the Central Intelligence Agency said Russia probably didn't have the ability to microtarget U.S. voters and districts in the 2016 presidential campaign on its own, meaning some sort of assistance would have been necessary.

Steve King employs family as year-round campaign staff, an unusual approach in Congress  —  U.S. Rep. Steve King employs his son and daughter-in-law as full-time campaign staffers, and has paid them more than $805,000 since 2004, records show.  —  Although typically legal …

Grimm hits D.C. amid comeback bid  —  Former Republican congressman and convicted felon Michael Grimm returned to Washington on Wednesday in a bid to win support for his comeback congressional bid.  —  Among the people whose support Grimm has secured is former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.