Politics

The New York Times reports: The Department of Homeland Security transferred nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a budget document released by a Democratic senator late Wednesday night, diverting funds from the relief agency just as a major hurricane barrels toward the East Coast. The document, which was released by …

The BBC reports: The two suspects in the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are civilians, not criminals, Russian President Vladimir Putin says. The UK government named them as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and said they were from Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. Mr Putin said his government had found the pair and he hoped …

Politico reports: Former President George W. Bush is hitting the fundraising circuit for a handful of Republican House and Senate candidates, joining the party’s push to maintain its congressional majorities. Bush has maintained a low profile since leaving office in 2009. Yet as the midterm campaign season enters its final weeks and the party braces for the prospect of a …

TMZ reports: President Oscar De La Hoya?!?! Don’t scoff — the boxing legend says he’s “very seriously” considering running for the highest office in the land … and he’s already putting together an exploratory team. “I am actually very, very serious and I strongly feel that if a Kanye West can do it and announce and maybe tease the world …

Courthouse News reports: A conservative political advocacy group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers must reveal the names of its largest donors to the California attorney general, three judges of the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday. The panel overturned U.S. District Judge Manuel Real’s 2016 ruling that allowed donors to Americans for Prosperity to remain anonymous. In its lawsuit originally filed …

The Reno Gazette-Journal reports: September’s poll shows Democrat Steve Sisolak now holds a 2 percentage point advantage over Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt in Nevada’s hard-fought governor’s race. Laxalt had less than a 1 percentage point lead over Sisolak in July’s survey. About 15 percent of polled voters remain undecided about the race. Democrat Jacky Rosen, the first-term congresswoman from …

“This could have been very different if Botham Jean had been, say he was a law abiding gun owner and he saw somebody coming into his apartment. I mean, there’s no — I don’t think there’s any context that the actions would have been justified. If I see somebody coming into my house and I’m not expecting them and they’re …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday canceled a second rally ahead of Hurricane Florence’s landfall, citing safety concerns as the storm threatens to wreak havoc on the East Coast. The rally was scheduled for Thursday in Missouri to promote U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley, who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill in the upcoming midterm election. The Trump …

From the right wing Newsmax: A left-leaning activist organization, Mainers for Accountable Leadership (MFAL), is teaming up with an organization called the Maine People’s Alliance, to crowdsource a fundraising campaign targeting Collins in her 2020 re-election if she votes to confirm Kavanaugh. But the fundraising has a catch. “Donors” are asked to pledge a donation against Collins, money that will …

CNN reports: Bob Woodward’s book “Fear” is already one of the biggest publishing success stories of the year. And it still isn’t even in bookstores yet. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, said Monday that it is printing one million copies of the book to keep up with reader demand. “Fear: Trump in the White House” will officially come out on …

ABC News reports: Maria Butina, the alleged Russian agent who stands accused of developing a covert influence operation in the United States, boasted of connections to high-ranking Kremlin officials and even shopped access to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ABC News has learned. Dozens of pages of email correspondence between August 2015 and November 2016, obtained exclusively by ABC News, reveal …

NBC News reports: U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis is resigning from Congress as he mounts his bid to become Florida’s next governor. DeSantis sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday announcing his immediate resignation. The northeast Florida Republican said in his letter that he will be spending time campaigning and it would be “inappropriate” to accept a salary …

Arizona’s US Senate race between Rep. Martha McSally and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema [photo] is now a dead heat: A Gravis Marketing poll found McSally ahead of Sinema 49 to 48 percent, a lead within the survey’s 3.3 point margin of error. Three percent of voters are still undecided. Monday’s survey is the first one this year where McSally, who recently …

Politico reports: He hasn’t decided yet if he’s running for president, but Michael Avenatti has already made a strategic 2020 decision. The attorney will base his national presidential campaign headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. should he launch a White House bid, he told POLITICO on Sunday. Avenatti also boldly predicted that the red state of Missouri would be “in play” …

The Huffington Post reports: On Sunday night, former Cruz campaign strategist Rick Tyler said his old boss may be in trouble deep in the heart of Texas as O’Rourke may pull off an upset win. “It’s possible,” Tyler said on MSNBC. Although Texas is such a red state, that doesn’t seem to be helping Cruz right now. “It should be …

Raw Story reports: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told a rally crowd in Humble, Texas that his opponent would turn Texas into California by bringing “tofu, silicon and dyed hair,” according to a Reuters reporter. James Oliphant of Reuters was at the rally, where Cruz was asked repeatedly about a White House aide’s comments suggesting that he could lose to Democratic …

The New York Times reports: A pair of top Republicans acknowledged in a private meeting on Saturday that the party was battling serious vulnerabilities in the midterm elections, including what one described as widespread “hate” for President Trump, and raised the prospect that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas could lose his bid for re-election because he is not seen as …

The Billings Gazette reports: Billings West High School senior Tyler Linfesty learned Thursday morning during first period that he had been selected for VIP treatment at President Donald J. Trump’s rally at MetraPark. Not long after Trump took the podium Thursday night at MetraPark, social media cued into Linfesty’s puzzled facial expressions, visible just over Trump’s right shoulder. Early on …

Bloomberg reports: Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy lost his fight to prevent the public from learning about allegations in a lawsuit by former Playboy model Shera Bechard that he coerced her into having an abortion after getting her pregnant. Among Bechard’s allegations are that Broidy refused to wear condoms and didn’t disclose to her that he had genital herpes until years …

CNN reports: Former President Barack Obama said President Donald Trump is “capitalizing on resentment that politicians have been fanning for years” and questioned “What happened to the Republican Party?” a preview of Obama’s message for the fall’s midterms and his most pointed rebuke to date of his successor in the White House. Obama stepped back into the political fray Friday, …