Lt. Gen. Joseph McGee
Forced to retire, October 2025, the AP reports
01 / The paceWashington
The economy grew at a 3.4% annual pace in the third quarter, and September inflation rose to 3.6%.
The Commerce Department said Thursday, Oct. 29, that the economy grew at a 3.4% annual pace from July through September, up from 2.2% in the spring and above forecasts of 3% to 3.2%. The same day, the PCE price index, the inflation measure the Fed targets, showed prices up 3.6% in the year to September, from 3.4% in August.
3.4% The economy (GDP)
3.8% Consumer spending
5% Sales to private U.S. buyers (“core GDP”)
12.7% Business investment outside housing
37.4% Information processing equipment
−3.3% Housing investment
Each bar is that category’s own annual pace, not its share of the 3.4%. Housing investment has fallen in six of the last seven quarters.
Over the past full year, growth was 2.1%. The 3.4% is one quarter’s pace, stated as an annual rate. It was the last big batch of economic data before the Tuesday, Nov. 3 midterms.
Prices, on the gauge the Fed targets
- The Fed’s goal
- 2%. September’s 3.6% is nearly double it.
- Without food and energy
- 3.1%, from 3% in August. It had held at 3% since June.
- August to September alone
- 0.5%, the biggest monthly rise since March CNBC
- The Fed’s own view, at its September hike
- 3.7% for 2026, and back at 2% only in 2029, for the median official
“The inflation outlook has become more concerning... underlying pressures are also broadening.”Ksenia Bushmeneva, TD economist
Market snapshotCME FedWatch put the odds of a quarter-point Fed rate hike in December at 85%, ABC News reported.
Read the reporting
02 / The plannerThe Pentagon
Hegseth fires Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the Joint Staff’s top war planner, over alleged Iran and Ukraine leaks and refers the case to the Justice Department.
Sylvia, a 32-year Army officer, ran J5, the office that drafts war plans and policy options for the nation’s top general. Pentagon officials say he leaked classified information about Iran and Ukraine to reporters. Spokesman Sean Parnell said the case went to the Justice Department after an Air Force Office of Special Investigations probe.
The evidence, and who describes it
- Fox News, The Guardian
- He failed three polygraph tests.
- Axios
- He failed four. An internal report it saw says he then admitted giving Iran and Ukraine information to two reporters over about a year, from as early as June 2025.
- The report
- Not released.
- Two other Pentagon sources, to CBS News
- The accusations are not true.
Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia
Fired; The Atlantic reported it Wednesday, Oct. 28
No one named
Replacement
“We vowed to find you, and we meant it.”Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell
Read the reporting
03 / The exemptionBoston
A federal judge strikes the rule that made disabled and chronically ill Medicaid enrollees prove they can’t meet the work requirement.
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns struck the federal Medicaid agency’s definition of “medically frail” as contrary to law on Thursday, Oct. 29. His order is a partial win for the 25 Democratic-led states, plus D.C., that sued.
Judge Richard Stearns’s 16-page order, line by line
- Struck
- Chronically ill and disabled enrollees must also show their condition significantly impairs their ability to meet the hours
- Upheld
- States must reject proof of frailty that rests on a diagnosis more than one year old
- Upheld
- A second federal limit on how states verify frailty
- Standing
- The work requirement: 80 hours a month of work, school or volunteering for adults 19 to 64, from Jan. 1, 2027
The law exempts the medically frail. If a state can’t confirm an exemption, a notice gives the enrollee 30 days to respond, and coverage continues meanwhile. Then the state must check whether the person qualifies under another Medicaid category before cutting coverage.
Enforcing it “may lead to the disenrollment of otherwise eligible vulnerable individuals.”Judge Richard Stearns, on the struck definition
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04 / The approvals · Long readUnited States
USCIS approved about 55,000 citizenship applications from April to June, down from more than 230,000 a year earlier.
Approvals began to fall late last year, Stateline reports, when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services made the process longer: social-media checks for “anti-American activities,” a restored civics test and stricter English rules.
more than 230,000 April–June 2025
about 55,000 April–June 2026
“More than 230,000” is a floor, so that row ends open. Stateline’s figures.
April–June approvals at offices serving three swing states
- Atlanta
- 1,059, down from 5,023
- Raleigh and Charlotte
- 1,261, down from 4,656
- Detroit
- 1,107, down from 4,203
Stateline estimates that at last year’s pace, about 380,000 more immigrants could have become citizens and eligible voters before the Nov. 3 midterms. It is an estimate of approvals that did not happen, not a count of people removed from voter rolls. Stateline’s own yearly totals, 871,000 and 481,000, work out to 390,000. An approved applicant becomes a citizen, and can register, only after taking the oath.
“Naturalization is a privilege, not a right.”USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler
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05 / The probesAlaska
Alaska’s governor orders a state criminal probe over the second Dan Sullivan, and DOJ subpoenas Democrats, AP and CBS News report.
Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC deny recruiting the same-name candidate. An unnamed DOJ official said the department knows of no confirmed case of an Alaska voter picking the wrong Sullivan.
Where the probes stand
- Alaska
- Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered state police to look for criminal or civil violations, Thursday, Oct. 29.
- Federal grand jury
- DOJ began sending subpoenas to Democratic officials tied to the second Sullivan’s candidacy, AP and CBS News reported, citing unnamed sources.
- DOJ’s civil suit
- Amended to block certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. On Wednesday, Oct. 28, Judge Sharon Gleason let Peltola’s campaign, the DSCC and a League of Women Voters group join. She can now rule on motions to dismiss it.
- Charged
- No one.
The lawThe official named 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242. Section 241 covers conspiracy against rights; § 242 covers deprivation of rights under color of law, which usually means officials, not campaigns.
“It should be!”Attorney General Todd Blanche, told the scheme might not be illegal
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06 / The early voteUnited States
More than 43 million Americans have voted early. In the 27 states that report party registration, registered Democrats cast 44% and Republicans 31.2%.
That is the University of Florida’s Election Lab count by Thursday, Oct. 29, about 4 million more than a day earlier. The party split barely moved: on Oct. 27 it was 45% to 31%.
44% Registered Democrats31.2% Registered Republicans24.7% Unaffiliated
Each square is 1% of those ballots; the states hold about half of all early ballots. Registration, not vote choice. The reported shares sum to 99.9%.
Texas passed 5.8 million early ballots, up from about 5 million a day earlier and about 1.75 million more than its 2022 early vote, lab director Michael McDonald told the BBC. He said turnout looks on track to top 2018, the highest midterm turnout in over a century.