Breaking Up with the Democratic Party  —  I changed my voting registration from ‘Democrat’ to ‘Independent’ today.  It was a strangely emotional experience.  —  I registered as a Democrat back in 1995 when I was 20 years old to vote for Bill Clinton's re-election.  It was a no-brainer for me.

Byron York's Daily Memo: Sinema under attack  —  Welcome to Byron York's Daily Memo newsletter.  —  Was this email forwarded to you?  Sign up here to receive the newsletter.  —  SINEMA UNDER ATTACK.  Remember the media cheers for Sen. John McCain when he stopped the effort to repeal Obamacare?

Top State adviser leaves post, rips Biden's use of Trump-era Title 42  —  A senior State Department official is leaving his role in the Biden administration.  And on his way out, he has sent a scathing internal memo criticizing the president's use of a Trump-era policy to expel migrants from the southern border.

Trump, talked out of announcing a 2024 bid for now, settles on a wink-and-nod unofficial candidacy  —  As turmoil in Afghanistan reached a crescendo in August, Donald Trump began talking again with advisers about whether he should announce his 2024 campaign for president right away.

USPS Begins Postal Banking Pilot Program  —  The test allows customers to cash business or payroll checks at the post office and place them onto a gift card.  —  The United States Postal Service (USPS) has taken the most dramatic step in a half-century to re-establish a postal banking system in America.

What The Trump Books Tell Us About Jan. 6  —  For the rest of our lives probably, we'll be learning new info about the days leading up to Jan. 6.  This is just phase one.  —  Copy  —  Last Tuesday, Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate …

McConnell reactivates his connection to Biden — with a sharp debt warning  —  Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell's two-man emergency hotline had gone silent — until now.  —  The Senate minority leader on Monday morning prodded the president to talk his party into raising the debt ceiling without the GOP …

Florida Gov. DeSantis' wife diagnosed with breast cancer  —  Fox News Flash top headlines for October 4  —  EXCLUSIVE - Casey DeSantis, the wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  —  “I am saddened to report that Florida's esteemed First Lady …

Zuckerberg Loses $7 Billion in Hours as Facebook Plunges  — CEO drops to No. 5 on list of world's richest, below Gates  — Stock slide knocks his net worth down to $120.9 billion  —  Mark Zuckerberg's personal wealth has fallen by nearly $7 billion in a few hours …

The Supreme Court Has Gone Off the Rails  —  Mr. Ayer was a U.S. attorney and principal deputy solicitor general in the Reagan administration and deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration.  —  The Supreme Court has final authority to make difficult judgment calls articulating …

Scoop: House Republican says he's facing federal prosecution  —  The top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee's agriculture panel says he's facing federal prosecution, Axios has learned.  —  Driving the news: In a new fundraising page for his legal expense fund, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry …

IATSE Members Vote to Authorize Nationwide Film and TV Production Strike … The members of the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees have voted to approve a strike authorization, giving the union president the power to shut down film and TV production across the country.

Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew  —  A trove of leaked documents, published by The Wall Street Journal, hints at a company whose best days are behind it.  —  One possible way to read “The Facebook Files,” The Wall Street Journal's excellent series of reports based on leaked internal Facebook research …

New video: Man splashes paint on George Floyd statue in Union Square  —  UNION SQUARE, Manhattan — After a statue of George Floyd was vandalized Sunday morning in Union Square, the NYPD early Monday released new surveillance video of a man dousing the statue with paint in broad daylight.

Ex-U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, sunk by ‘legitimate rape’ remark, dies  —  Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape” sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, died late Sunday.

One-time presidential candidate Evan McMullin will mount an independent bid to oust Republican Sen. Mike Lee, Robert Gehrke reports  —  A McMullin candidacy challenges the rigid two-party standard, which leaves too many Utahns unrepresented.  —  Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin speaks …

Top Trans Doctors Blow the Whistle on ‘Sloppy’ Care  —  In exclusive interviews, two prominent providers sound off on puberty blockers, ‘affirmative’ care, the inhibition of sexual pleasure, and the suppression of dissent in their field.  —  For nearly a decade, the vanguard …

Republicans Shout Down Lindsey Graham for Pushing Vaccine  —  “Well, I'm glad I got it.  Ninety-two percent of people in hospitals in South Carolina are unvaccinated,” he told the crowd of Republican activists who booed him.  —  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was booed by Republican activists Saturday …

Exclusive: Stephanie Grisham says ‘I regret’ enabling culture of dishonesty in Trump White House  —  The former Trump aide spoke exclusively to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.  —  In an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Stephanie Grisham, one of former President Donald Trump's …

China PCR test orders soared before first reported COVID case  —  Government contracts show surges in Wuhan-area purchases starting May 2019  —  TOKYO — Purchases of PCR tests in China's Hubei Province surged months before the first official reports of a novel coronavirus case there …

Covid, in Retreat  —  New cases in the U.S. have fallen by more than a third in the past month.  —  Covid-19 is once again in retreat.  —  The reasons remain somewhat unclear, and there is no guarantee that the decline in caseloads will continue.  But the turnaround is now large enough …

White Riot In 1992, thousands of furious, drunken cops descended on City Hall — and changed New York history.  —  This story was produced in partnership with The Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization that will address the crisis of mass incarceration and policing.

Ken Griffin, Top GOP Donor, Rules Out Backing a Trump Rerun  —  Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, a major donor to Republicans, ruled out supporting Donald Trump for another run for president.  —  “I think it's time for America to move on,” he said in a discussion Monday with Erik Schatzker at the Economic Club of Chicago.

A Judge Sent A Capitol Rioter To Prison, Rejecting The Government's Lighter Recommendation  —  WASHINGTON — A judge on Monday ordered Capitol rioter Matthew Mazzocco to spend 45 days in prison, rejecting not only the defense's argument for probation but also the prosecution's recommendation …

Matthew Dowd Gets Snippy with Brianna Keilar, Dismisses Deleted Tweets as Fox ‘Conspiracy’: ‘I Answered Three Times’  —  Tensions briefly flared between CNN's Brianna Keilar and Matthew Dowd as the former George W. Bush strategist fielded questions about a major Twitter purge he did.

Jan. 6 rioters exploited little-known Capitol weak spots: A handful of unreinforced windows  —  Four major access points that Jan. 6 rioters used to break into and overtake the U.S. Capitol had something unusual in common: They were among a dozen or so ground-floor windows and glass-paned doors that had not been recently reinforced.