memeorandum: 1 storm, more than 100 dead and a 500-mile path of destruction. Now comes the hard work of recovering from Helene (CNN)

5:35 PM ET, September 30, 2024

Top Items:

CNN:

1 storm, more than 100 dead and a 500-mile path of destruction. Now comes the hard work of recovering from Helene — Short on supplies, power and patience, storm victims who saw the brutal force of Helene upend their lives have emerged to a new week, facing the daunting challenge of rebuilding.

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:

Hurricane Helene: Trump speaks in Georgia, bashes Harris for not traveling there … Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump traveled to hurricane-blasted Georgia to deliver remarks and help hand out supplies, one day after he leveraged the devastating storm as a political attack against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Rebecca Downs / Townhall:

‘FAKE and STAGED’: Trump Responds to Kamala Harris' Bogus Post on Hurricane Helene — As Matt and Katie have been covering, former and potentially future President Donald Trump is traveling to the site of Hurricane Helene devastation, while the Biden-Harris administration has had a particularly lacking response.

Discussion: Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

Jeffrey Collins / Associated Press:
Supplies arrive by plane and mule to North Carolina as Helene death toll tops 100

Rolling Stone:
Trump Says No One Could Have Predicted Hurricane at Peak of Hurricane Season

Discussion: New Republic, HuffPost, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, USA Today, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, PoliticusUSA, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, ComingSoon.net, UPI and The Hill

Bloomberg:
Trump Says He Asked Musk for Starlink in Helene-Hit Towns

Discussion: Forbes, Business Insider, The Hill, USA Today, Reuters, American Greatness, The Gateway Pundit, E&E News, Florida Politics and Politico

New York Times:

The Only Patriotic Choice for President — It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Politico, HuffPost, RedState, Breitbart, Raw Story, Enough Already, Fox News, New Jersey Online, American Thinker, Mediaite, So What and The Hill

Caroline Rose Giuliani / Vanity Fair:
Rudy Giuliani's Daughter: Trump Took My Dad From Me. Please Don't Let Him Take Our Country, Too

Discussion: New Republic, New York Daily News, New Jersey Online and Raw Story

William Kristol / The Bulwark:
Our Time for Choosing — We thought we'd seen the worst of Helene after it made landfall in Florida …

Discussion: Republican Voters … and Axios

Ankush Khardori / Politico:

The Coming Trump Revenge Tour — Trump has campaigned on a wave of retaliatory criminal prosecutions. It's not the first time he's promised to lock up his rivals — but a second term would be different. — In the most volatile presidential campaign of the last 50 years …

Discussion: Raw Story and Twitchy

Danielle Kurtzleben / NPR:
Trump turns to darker rhetoric as voting begins

Discussion: New Republic, New York Times, Twitchy, Joe.My.God., HuffPost, Deadline, Meidas+, The Gateway Pundit, Los Angeles Times and Axios

emptywheel:
As Kamala Harris Passes the Two-Thirds Mark, Trump Adopts Apocalyptic Language

Discussion: Washington Examiner, BizPac Review, The Gateway Pundit and New York Post

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Trump Wants to Lock Up Kamala Harris Now

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo and Washington Examiner

Maya Prabhu / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Judge again strikes down Georgia abortion law, allowing abortions to resume … About the Author — Maya T. Prabhu is a government reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Born in Queens, New York, and raised in northern Virginia, Maya attended Spelman College and then the University of Maryland for a master's degree.

Discussion: Axios, PoliticusUSA, Reuters and WSAV-TV

Nathaniel Weixel / The Hill:

Georgia judge strikes down state's six-week abortion ban — Georgia's “heartbeat” law banning abortion after six weeks is unconstitutional and can't be enforced, a Fulton County superior judge ruled Monday. — The ruling permanently enjoined the law and stated that abortions must …

Discussion: HuffPost, NBC News, Scripps News, CBS News, Georgia Recorder, Joe.My.God. and The Guardian

Margaret Sullivan / American Crisis:

The three phases of normalizing Trump's attack on Harris in Wisconsin — The use of neutral language. If you merely read about Donald Trump's deeply offensive rally this weekend in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, you probably thought it was about immigration. And about Trump up to his usual tricks of disparaging his rivals.

Michael Tomasky / New Republic:

Oops, They Did It Again: The Mainstream Media Buries Trump's Outrage … It's a pretty sad commentary on the way our mainstream media cover Donald Trump that if you really want to know what Trump said at a given rally, you would be wasting your time going to The New York Times or The Washington Post …

Discussion: TIME, Raw Story and C-SPAN.org

Jay Kuo / The Status Kuo:

Legacy Media Is Failing Us Hard — Trump delivered some of his most terrifying remarks to date, but the press shrugged. And now it's refusing to fact check Tuesday's debate. — Corporate media has consistently failed to meet the danger of rising fascism in the U.S. And there are two stark examples …

Discussion: Washington Examiner and The Daily Beast

Miriam Jordan / New York Times:

An Ohio Businessman Faces Death Threats for Praising His Haitian Workers — The lifelong Republican employs fewer Haitians than others in Springfield, but his life has been upended since Donald J. Trump spread falsehoods about immigrants in his hometown. — For Jamie McGregor …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.

Jonathan Martin / Politico:
‘Just Not Right’: A GOP Governor Confronts Trump's Lies

Discussion: Plain Dealer

David A. Graham / The Atlantic:

Trump Is Taking a Dark Turn — If you think that Donald Trump's speeches this campaign cycle are just more of the same, consider the analysis of the person who knows more about them than anyone else. — “They thought they'd be out there jumping up and down, ‘Make America great again,’” …

Adam Wren / Politico:
Trump says ‘violent day’ of policing will end crime

Discussion: New York Times, New York Magazine, Raw Story, Vanity Fair, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, RedState, New York Post, Mock Paper Scissors, Washington Post, BizPac Review and Joe.My.God.

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump says ‘1 rough hour’ of policing would end crime

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Newsbusters, RedState, Washington Post, HuffPost and IJR

Blake Jones / Politico:

California bans legacy admissions at all colleges — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a prohibition on the practice. — SACRAMENTO, California — It will soon be illegal for public and private universities in California to consider an applicant's relationship to alumni or donors when deciding whether to admit them.

Discussion: Governor of California, Los Angeles Times, Axios, USA Today, Business Insider, Reason, Palo Alto Online, IJR and New York Times

Courtney Cohn / Democracy Docket:

Arkansas Judge Mandates Early Voting in Majority Black City — Early voting will be held at Seventh Street Church of Christ in West Memphis, Arkansas after a judge granted part of a request from two voters. The voters in the majority-Black city initially requested at least two early voting locations.

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Polls show big increase in Republicans planning to vote for abortion rights — In some states, that GOP number could even approach a majority. — The politics of abortion rights have shifted massively toward Democrats since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Discussion: Townhall

NBC News:

FBI to pay $22 million to settle claims of sexual discrimination at training academy — The payout to 34 women dismissed from the FBI's training academy in Quantico, Virginia, would rank among the biggest lawsuit settlements in the history of the bureau. — The FBI has agreed to pay …

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Examiner, The National Pulse, The Hill, Reuters, New York Daily News and The Daily Caller

Sharon Udasin / The Hill:

California faces ‘unprecedented’ local spread of dengue fever, possibly driven by climate change — California last week clocked its fourth case of locally transmitted dengue fever this year — an alarming rise in a sometimes-deadly disease that experts fear could be fueled by climate change.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

David Zimmermann / National Review:

Hamas Commander Killed in Israeli Strike Led U.N. Refugee Agency Teachers' Union — A Hamas commander in Lebanon who was killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight was an accredited member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the embattled agency confirmed after his death.

Discussion: The Times of Israel, freebeacon.com, Jerusalem Post, Human Events, Los Angeles Times, HotAir, Breitbart, Fox News, Power Line and Patterico's Pontifications

Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:

Trump, Magic Beans, and the $100,000 Watch — Trump's watch scheme is an arrangement specifically designed to defeat bribery laws. — ∙ Paid — Before we start: A reader with deep connections to Asheville sent me a note about a friend who is working to get meals to people from a food hub.

Steve Benen / MSNBC:

On overtime pay, Trump slips up by accidentally telling the truth — Donald Trump admitted that he concocted a private-sector scheme to avoid paying his own employees overtime compensation. So much for his “pro-worker” pitch. — Five of the most interesting words in Donald Trump's rhetorical repertoire …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Mahablog, New Republic, Fortune, HuffPost, Joe.My.God., Raw Story and Mediaite

New York Times:

How CBS Will Fact Check the Walz-Vance VP Debate — CBS is experimenting with a novel way to offer real-time fact-checking of the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday. Just don't expect the moderators to frequently jump in. — The journalistic dilemma of how to fact-check national candidates …

Discussion: Business Insider, Washington Examiner, Axios, Off Message, Media Matters for America, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, The Hollywood Reporter, Mediaite, Newsbusters, Poynter, The Daily Beast and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Where Americans Have Been Moving Into Disaster-Prone Areas … Note: Population changes shown on maps reflect domestic migration and do not include international migration or local births and deaths. — The country's vast population shift has left more people exposed to the risk …

Andre Byik / USA Today:

Video of Harris slurring words in Helene warning is edited | Fact check — The claim: Video shows Kamala Harris slurred words in Helene remarks — A Sept. 27 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows Vice President Kamala Harris delivering a warning about Hurricane Helene and speaking in an unusually slow manner.

Noah Berlatsky / Public Notice:

Taking Trump's mass deportation vow seriously and literally — 🚨 This special, five-edition week of PN is made possible by paid subscribers. If you aren't one already, please sign up to support our independent journalism. 🚨 — 🚓 Subscribe to Public Notice 🚓

Discussion: HotAir

Washington Post:

VA staff got into Vance, Walz medical files, sparking investigation — At least a dozen VA employees improperly accessed the medical records of vice presidential nominees JD Vance and Tim Walz this summer, investigators found. — At least a dozen employees at the Department …

Discussion: CNN, The Guardian, Breitbart, The Hill, Fox News, NPR, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, RedState and The Daily Caller

Noah Shachtman / New York Magazine:

The Secretive Alliance Between the New York Post and Eric Adams — Rupert Murdoch's paper helped elect Adams and hasn't quite given up on him yet. — The mayor even worked the coat-check line for a moment before taking selfies with staff members. “We all thought it was a little bit bizarre …