News from the note…

A round up of the day’s news that might be of interest to you.

This is an OPEN THREAD,  folks. Chat about any of the stories listed, share links to stories that caught your eye today, and generally have a good time discussing whatever you want.

Silence on Wall Street. Tears in a retirement home. The country watches, transfixed, as Ford tells her story.

“It looks like she’s crying,” Hilda Darkins said, as several retirees around her dabbed their own eyes. “Who can blame her?”

At the Mid-County Senior Center in Lake Worth, Fla., two dozen people sat around circular tables, facing the television. They watched Christine Blasey Ford, who was watching in silence as Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) read lengthy opening statements.

Then Ford herself began to speak.

“She looks scared, and she looks nervous. But I think she’s telling the truth,” said Myrtle Facey, 78, a retired cashier. “She may have waited a long time to talk about it, but this is something that will never leave you, no matter what happens. You always remember it. You may not think of it every day, but it will always be with you, just like learning the ABCs. You never forget.”

Washington Post

Inspector General says FEMA chief kept using government vehicles to travel after being told to stop

Even after he had been told not to, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long used government SUVs and drivers to shuttle him between home and work, to and from his family’s North Carolina residence, and while on vacation, according to an Inspector General’s investigative report released by House Democrats on Wednesday.

FEMA did not immediately respond to CNN’s request to comment on the report.

The practice cost the government around $151,000, investigators estimated, and FEMA officials may have violated several federal laws, including destroying federal records and “theft of public money, property, or records.”

CNN

Democrats prepare to force vote on Mueller protection bill

House Democrats are preparing to force a vote Thursday on a plan to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe from interference or unilateral removal by President Donald Trump.

Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, with the backing of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, intend to introduce the proposal as an amendment ahead of expected consideration of three tax-related bills. The proposal would force Republicans to decide whether to consider the Mueller-protection proposal or sideline it.

For Democrats, the effort is a chance to force Republicans on the record on an issue that has generated some bipartisan support in the House and Senate. It’s a matter Democrats have described with increasing urgency as Trump has ratcheted up his attacks on Mueller and the investigation of his campaign’s contacts with Russia.

Politico

Brazil museum fire sparks soul searching about spending

Long before Brazil’s National Museum went up in flames, the people who ran it were pleading for help to renovate the dilapidated 200-year-old building that held much of the nation’s historical and scientific heritage.

They appealed for $4.2 million in private donations three years ago — but received just $240,000, according to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which oversees the museum. They’d turned to businesses for aid because government funds were declining as officials slashed budgets to cope with a recession.

The lack of investment may have doomed the museum, which was gutted on Sept. 2 and lost most of its 20 million artifacts, many of them literally priceless, including what it likely the oldest human fossil in the Americas. It was among the greatest blows to a museum anywhere in recent times.

While the cause is still under investigation, the loss is causing belated soul-searching about why Latin America’s largest economy had devoted so few resources to protecting and maintaining the museum, housed in a structure built for Brazil’s now-defunct royal family.

“Brazil can’t set its priorities. I still can’t believe this tragedy happened,” university dean Roberto Lehrer told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “It isn’t only the state that failed the museum, it is also our society. There’s money for Disney shows in Rio, but not for the museum.”

AP

House committee to vote on release of Trump Russia transcripts

A U.S. House of Representatives committee will vote on Friday on whether to release dozens of transcripts of interviews from its investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, including conversations with senior associates of President Donald Trump.

The House Intelligence Committee is expected to agree to send transcripts of the 53 interviews to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for review before they are made public, congressional aides said on Thursday.

Reuters