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?

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.

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.

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 …

The revelations about Mike Pence's role in Jan. 6 keep getting worse  —  It has become a ubiquitous question in our politics: How close did Donald Trump come to pulling off an actual coup?  —  Efforts to grapple with this have been trapped largely in the zone of wild speculation.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

Chinese state media: Taiwan ‘an evil force the mainland must crush’  —  China has previously warned Taiwan that “independence means war.”  Just a couple of weeks ago state media outlet Global Times published a piece warning that when (not if) war breaks out, the US would abandon Taiwan.

U.S. Signals No Thaw in Trade Relations With China  —  The Biden administration said it would not immediately remove the Trump administration's tariffs and would require that Beijing uphold its trade commitments.  —  WASHINGTON — The Biden administration offered its strongest signal yet …