National News at a Glance

‘Fat.’ ‘Dog.’ ‘No Longer a 10.’ How Trump Talks About Women.

President Donald Trump referred to pornographic film actress Stephanie Clifford as “Horseface” in a tweet on Tuesday, adding her to a long list of women he has attacked by demeaning their looks, mocking their bodily functions or comparing them to animals. Trump’s verbal assault came as he gloated about a judge’s decision to dismiss a defamation suit filed by Clifford, who is known professionally as Stormy Daniels. Trump’s tweet landed in the final days of a congressional election cycle in which Republican candidates are already struggling to woo female voters. The president’s language is unlikely to be helpful to them.

Dozens Still Missing as Hurricane’s Death Toll Rises

Nicholas Sines was last heard from at his tiny apartment in Panama City, Florida, more than a week ago. As Hurricane Michael was bearing down on the Florida Panhandle, his mother, Kristine Wright, urged her son to get out before it was too late. Now, after the storm, Wright still has not heard from him. Sines, 22, is among dozens of people still unaccounted for since Michael roared through Florida and surrounding states last week. But in a storm zone that stretches across hundreds of miles, word about their fates has been slow in coming.

Small Donors Fuel a Big Democratic Lead in 2018 Fundraising

An army of Democrats giving money over the internet has lifted the party’s House candidates to a strong financial advantage over Republicans in the final weeks of the 2018 midterm election, with Democrats in the most competitive House races outraising their Republican rivals by more than $78 million. Democratic challengers have outpaced Republican incumbents in large part by drawing in millions of dollars from many thousands of supporters online. Across the 69 most competitive House races, Democrats have raised a total of $46 million from small donors during the 2018 election, compared with just $15 million for their Republican opponents.

Charlottesville’s Racial Divide Hinders Black Students

Charlottesville, Virginia’s racial inequities mirror college towns across the country. But they also match the wider world of education, which is grappling with racial gaps that can undercut the effort to equitably prepare students for college in a competitive economy. The debate over the city’s statue of Robert E. Lee and the white supremacist march spurred it to confront its Confederate past. But the city has not fully come to terms with another aspect of its Jim Crow legacy: a school system that segregates students from the time they start, and steers them into separate and unequal tracks.

Is It Possible to Be an Anti-Abortion Democrat? One Woman Tried to Find Out

Joan Barry has been a member of the Missouri Democratic Party for 53 years. As a state legislator, she voted regularly for workers’ rights, health care and programs for the poor. So when the party began writing a new platform after its crushing losses in 2016, Barry, a member of its state committee, did not think it was too much to ask for a plank that welcomed people like her — Democrats who oppose abortion. At first the party agreed and added it. But within days, Barry began receiving angry emails and Facebook messages.

This Election Season, Republicans’ Deficit Focus Goes the Way of the Vuvuzela

In 2010, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., issued an ominous threat about the nation’s deficit, one repeatedly echoed by Republican candidates as they marched toward a decisive takeover of the House that year. “Unprecedented levels of spending, deficits and debt,” Ryan wrote, “will overwhelm the budget, smother the economy, weaken America’s competitiveness." The deficit has once again ballooned, a byproduct of increased spending, large tax cuts and the inexorable rise of Social Security and Medicare expenditures that Congress has repeatedly failed to contain. But alarm bells about this issue have become as passé as vuvuzelas and other cultural remnants of 2010.

Polarization Seems to Be Helping Republicans in Run-Up to Midterms

One big question looms over the fight for control of Congress: Will strong Democratic candidates ride a blue wave to victories on Nov. 6 in the long list of Republican-leaning areas they’ve put into play? District and state polling raises the possibility of an election like last year’s Virginia elections or the 2010 midterm elections. Both were strong results for the party out of power — but the big numbers came mainly on home turf. The Democratic geographic disadvantage is so severe that it gives the Republicans a chance to survive a so-called wave election.

Lead Counsel for Harvard in Bias Trial Recalls His Run-Ins With Discrimination

Before the trial accusing Harvard of racial discrimination began its second day, the university’s lead lawyer, Bill Lee, wandered the hallway in the courthouse, chatting. In a case that examines whether Harvard unfairly limits the number of Asian-Americans admitted to the school, one crude assumption is that Harvard’s choice of Lee to litigate this case was in part strategic, because it put an Asian-American face on the team. "When I arrived here in Boston I was the only Asian-American lawyer in the entire city,” he said. “Forty-two years later I hope I’m still doing it because I’m good at it.”