WaPo: “President Biden’s slumping approval ratings and gridlock on Capitol Hill have raised the risk that Democrats could lose the Virginia governor’s race, according to party insiders who fear a defeat could spark broader legislative and electoral problems in the coming year. In a sign of the rising anxieties, the party’s nominee in Virginia, former…

KVUE: “Arson investigators have arrested a man they believe placed a Molotov cocktail and a “threatening note” inside the Travis County Democratic Party headquarters in Downtown Austin in the early-morning hours of Sept. 29. A small fire broke out just after 2:15 a.m. at the headquarters located at 1311 E. Sixth St., and employees in the neighboring…

NY Times: “Police killings in America have been undercounted by more than half over the past four decades, according to a new study that raises pointed questions about racial bias among medical examiners and highlights the lack of reliable national record keeping on what has become a major public health and civil rights issue. The…

NY Times: “Beto O’Rourke came close to unseating Senator Ted Cruz in 2018 and fell far from winning the presidency in 2020. Now the former El Paso congressman has turned his attention back home. He’s been a key organizer and fund-raiser in the fight against Republicans’ efforts to restrict voting rights in the state, including…

Politico: “President Joe Biden can’t afford Terry McAuliffe to lose the governor’s race in Virginia — and the White House knows it. It’s a scenario the president and his aides and close allies increasingly view as a real possibility, given tightening poll numbers in the race and signs of Democratic apathy. The White House, Democratic…

The Intercept: ” Israeli consular officials in the southeast U.S. arranged meetings with a dean at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to discuss a graduate student teaching a course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to two UNC professors with knowledge of the meetings, who asked for anonymity for fear of retribution, the Israeli…

Sun Herald: ““Most people would have torn it down,” said Evans, who taught history at Boston College and in Massachusetts public schools while maintaining his roots as a sixth-generation member of the Turkey Creek community. “I didn’t. I knew it had to be historic.” “ . . . It was almost predestined that what has…

3WTKR: “A new monument dedicated to the African-Americans who fought for freedom in the U.S. was unveiled in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday, just weeks after the city removed one of the largest monuments dedicated to the Confederacy. The Emancipation and Freedom Monument on Brown Island honors the contributions of African-Americans in Virginia who fought for freedom both…

AP: “A former Louisiana State Police trooper has been charged with a civil rights violation for pummeling a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight — the first criminal case to emerge from federal investigations into troopers’ beatings of at least three Black men. A grand jury on Thursday indicted Jacob Brown for the 2019…

Axios: “Stacey Abrams this week launched an ambitious national tour that will stretch across months and many swing states ahead of the 2022 midterms — and potentially elevate her standing in the Democratic Party in the process. Driving the news: Abrams kicked off the tour Tuesday in San Antonio, where she told one local journalist “unequivocally, yes” she’d…