Virginia governor's race a toss-up as Election Day nears, Post-Schar School poll finds  —  RICHMOND — Virginia's race for governor is a toss-up as Tuesday's election draws near, with 49 percent of likely voters favoring Democrat Terry McAuliffe and 48 percent favoring Republican Glenn Youngkin …

Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm  —  A consulting architect on UCSB's Design Review Committee has quit his post in protest over the university's proposed Munger Hall project, calling the massive, mostly-windowless dormitory plan “unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent, and a human being.”

‘God love ya’: Warm relationship between the world's most powerful Catholics on display as Biden and Pope Francis meet  —  Rome (CNN)The world's most powerful Catholics — President Joe Biden and Pope Francis — held 90 minutes of talks Friday in a session that blended the official …

How to Push Back on Fox  —  Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger aren't giving them a free pass.  —  The thing to understand about bullies is that they never expect people to push back.  —  Most people are conflict-averse, so usually, the bullies are free to take their shots and the people …

For First Time in Public, a Detainee Describes Torture at C.I.A. Black Sites  —  In a sentencing hearing, Majid Khan, a Pakistani who lived in suburban Baltimore before joining Al Qaeda, detailed dungeonlike conditions and episodes of abuse.  —  GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba …

The country needs a dose of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to battle COVID-19  —  Florida has the lowest COVID-19 case rate in the country.  They did it without vaccine mandates, without mask mandates in school and with no restrictions on businesses.  Life simply went on.

Kinzinger retiring from Congress, vows ‘broader fight nationwide’ against Trumpism  —  Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of the most prominent critics of former President Donald Trump in the House Republican Conference, announced Friday he won't seek reelection next year.

Dems limp out of another stumble-ending month  —  House liberals left the Capitol triumphant on Thursday night after once again scuttling a major vote.  Every other Democrat was fuming.  —  For the second time in less than a month, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team had to delay …

Unlimited Sand and Money Still Won't Save the Hamptons  —  If you happened to be in Montauk, N.Y., when the trucks started rolling in this summer, you'd get a sense of how much sand $171,000 buys.  Load after load tumbled onto Ditch Plains Beach, one of the Atlantic Coast's better surfing spots …

Flight attendant suffers broken bones in ‘one of the worst displays of unruly behavior’ in the skies  —  The incident prompted the pilots to divert the flight to Denver, where a passenger was detained  —  A flight attendant for American Airlines suffered broken bones in her face …

Jan. 6 committee set to interview rioter who breached the Capitol  —  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Friday will interview one of the 650 defendants charged with breaching the Capitol, part of an attempt to collect evidence about the rioters' motivations, contacts and travel arrangements.

Vaccinated People Also Spread the Delta Variant, Yearlong Study Shows  — Study found similar peak viral load with or without shots  — Immunized household contacts have a 25% chance of infection  —  People inoculated against Covid-19 are just as likely to spread the delta variant …

Air Force is first to face troops' rejection of vaccine mandate as thousands avoid shots  —  Up to 12,000 Air Force personnel have rejected orders to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus despite a Pentagon mandate, and officials say it is too late for them to do so by the Tuesday deadline …

Truth Social Violated Mastodon's ToS; Trump's Entire Platform Might Now Be DOA  —  Donald Trump's latest business venture, Truth Social, is a brand-new social media platform that is going to be a publicly-traded company via a reverse merger with a SPAC.  Consequently, it sits at the intersection between finance, law, and technology.

Trump's real-estate empire pays the price for poisonous politics  —  Former U.S. president Donald Trump's slashing rhetorical style and divisive politics allowed him to essentially take over the Republican Party.  His supporters are so devoted that most believe his false claim that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud.

Biden admin barred from firing unvaccinated employees after DC judge issues injunction  —  The attorney for the plaintiffs said the Biden administration has shown ‘an unprecedented, cavalier attitude toward the rule of law’  —  Fox News Flash top headlines for October 28

Judge Says GOP Congressman Can't Be Left Alone With Evidence  —  The judge was so concerned that Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) might compromise the case that he prohibited Fortenberry from looking at the evidence against him by himself.  —  After Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) …

Kamalaworld is worried about a difficult, messy Democratic primary if it's Harris versus Pete Buttigieg in 2024  — Democratic insiders are quietly discussing a 2024 race if Joe Biden opts out.  — Kamala Harris' allies think she would face a tough primary against Pete Buttigieg.

POLITICO Playbook: Why Joe Biden already won  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BIDEN GETS IT DONE, DESPITE HIMSELF — To say Thursday was a roller coaster for President JOE BIDEN's agenda wouldn't do justice to how truly head-spinning the day was.  The White House releases a Build Back Better (BBB) …

The Purge: Kinzinger Edition  —  When evil is celebrated and good men are scorned.  —  I missed TNB last night so I'm going to listen to the podcast version today.  If you like watching the show, you can catch the rewind here.  —  1. Kinzinger, Out  —  Adam Kinzinger, who chose country over party, is retiring.

When ‘Jesus’ Came to Q  —  Holy war, the Storm, and the thin line between reality and theater.  —  No one expects to see a once-prominent actor, fallen from the limelight, delivering a crusade sermon in Las Vegas, yet these are the times we live in.  Jim Caviezel is most famous for his portrayal …

A Sexual Assault Case in Loudoun County Isn't About Trans Issues  —  This is a story about how the right twisted the sexual assault of a teenager into a culture war fantasy.  It's about how a distorted tale on a conservative website became grist for a nationwide moral panic.

Bidenomics' Build Back Better Blunder  —  Swedish socialist economist Assar Lindbeck is semi-famous for saying that “in many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city - except for bombing.”  It's becoming clearer that one of the most efficient ways …

MIT to discuss academic freedom after canceling prestigious lecture over professor's views  —  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was set to hold a faculty forum on Wednesday in an effort to resolve an intense dispute over academic freedom after the cancellation of a speech …