memeorandum: Gardner leads Udall in Colorado Senate race (Eric Bradner/CNN)

1:35 PM ET, October 15, 2014

Top Items:

Texas Department of State Health Services Mobile:

Second Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola — A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States has tested positive for the disease. — The health care worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at the hospital.

Discussion: Washington Post, Gawker, New York Times, ABC News, Hinterland Gazette, The Verge, Scared Monkeys, Mashable, The Moderate Voice, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Patterico's Pontifications

Holly Yan / CNN:

2nd health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital — (CNN) — A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola, health officials said Wednesday — casting further doubt on the hospital's ability to handle Ebola and protect employees.

Discussion: National Review, Scared Monkeys, WREG-TV, Mediaite, BBC, Truth Revolt and FOX News Radio

Manny Fernandez / New York Times:

Ebola Test Is Positive in Second Texas Health Worker — DALLAS — Three days after a nurse who treated a Liberian man with Ebola contracted the virus, a second worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has tested positive for the virus in preliminary tests, state and federal health officials said Wednesday morning.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, CNN, ThinkProgress, JustOneMinute, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, Gawker, Shakesville and Mashable

Associated Press:

OFFICIAL: 2ND WORKER IN ISOLATION WITH 90 MINUTES — DALLAS (AP) — A second health care worker at a Dallas hospital who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has tested positive for the disease, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh, Instapundit and Vox Popoli

Los Angeles Times:
Nurses at Dallas hospital describe poor safety measures with Ebola victim

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Washington Post:
Dallas hospital learned its Ebola protocols while struggling to save mortally ill patient

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hot Air, New York Times, The Lonely Conservative and Gawker

Dan Mangan / Reuters:
Texas college rejects Nigerian applicants, cites Ebola cases

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, Business Insider and Raw Story

Washington Post:
Keeping an even keel at home on Ebola

Discussion: New York Times, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Washington Free Beacon and Rush Limbaugh

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

The Polls Might Be Skewed Against Democrats — Or Republicans — This year's Senate election is close. Republicans have the clearer path to a majority, but it's a treacherous one. Republicans are favored in Iowa and Colorado, for example, but not by much.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Booman Tribune and PJ Media

WXIA-TV:

Exclusive Poll: Nunn leads Senate race by 3% — ATLANTA — For the first time, Michelle Nunn leads the race for Georgia's Senate seat. In an exclusive 11Alive poll conducted by Survey USA, Democrat Michelle Nunn leads likely voters 48% to Republican David Perdue's 45%.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, PoliticusUSA, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Weekly Standard and Politico

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Gardner leads Udall in Colorado Senate race

Discussion: Firedoglake, Weekly Standard, Fox News, Washington Post and National Review

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:
Democrats' Hopes to Gain in House Fade

Discussion: Campaign for America's Future

C.J. Chivers / New York Times:

The Secret U.S. Casualties of Iraq's Abandoned Chemical Weapons — A controlled detonation of recovered mustard shells near Taji, Iraq, on Aug. 17, 2008. — The soldiers at the blast crater sensed something was wrong. — It was August 2008 near Taji, Iraq.

Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Now ISIS Has Chemical Weapons?

Discussion: RedState and New York Times

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

The Democratic Party just hit a 30-year low — The Democratic Party is held in worse regard than at any point in the past 30 years, according to a new poll. — The poll, from the Washington Post and ABC News, shows 39 percent of Americans now have a favorable impression of the blue team …

Discussion: Townhall.com, The Daily Caller and Washington Free Beacon

Gary Langer / ABC News:

Trouble Looms for Obama, Democrats with Election Day 2014 Approaching — Barack Obama and his political party are heading into the midterm elections in trouble. The president's 40 percent job approval rating in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll is the lowest of his career …

Discussion: Washington Post and Washington Free Beacon

Washington Post:
Poll shows Obama approval low, GOP enthusiasm higher than Democrats'

Discussion: Hot Air and Hullabaloo

Mark Murray / NBC News:
GOP Holds Edge Over Dems in Midterm Home Stretch: Poll

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review and Talking Points Memo

Kyle Wagner / Deadspin:

The Future Of The Culture Wars Is Here, And It's Gamergate — Over the weekend, a game developer in Boston named Brianna Wu fled her home after an online stalker vowed to rape and kill her. She isn't the first woman who's been forced into hiding by aggrieved video game fans associated with Gamergate …

Discussion: Hot Air, Raw Story and VICE

Standard-Examiner:
Terror threat against feminist Anita Sarkeesian at USU

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mashable, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and The Verge

Utah State Today:
Sarkeesian Event Canceled

Discussion: Guardian and Raw Story

Katherine Driessen / Houston Chronicle:

City subpoenas pastors' sermons in equal rights ordinance case … Houston's embattled equal rights ordinance took another legal turn this week when it surfaced that city attorneys, in an unusual step, subpoenaed sermons given by local pastors who oppose the law and are tied …

Discussion: National Review, Hot Air, Washington Post, American Thinker, The Daily Caller and RedState

Todd Starnes / Fox News:
City of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons

Discussion: Hit & Run, www.frcblog.com, Allen B. West, Truth Revolt, Shot in the Dark, The Federalist, adfmedia.org and The Hugh Hewitt Show

Laura Segall / Bloomberg:

Ben Carson's Longshot Presidential Bid Suddenly Looks a Lot More Realistic — Rand Paul? Ted Cruz? Jeb Bush? Chris Christie? More Iowa Republicans are backing Ben Carson than all of them. — “I tend to be an honest and frank and open person,” says Ben Carson, his voice not much more than a whisper.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Bloomberg View

Margaret Talev / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg/DMR Iowa Poll: Without Romney, the GOP Field Is Wide Open for 2016

Discussion: Washington Post, National Review, CNN, Fox News, Hot Air, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Times and The Daily Caller

The Boston Globe:

Rethink Harvard's sexual harassment policy — In July, Harvard University announced a new university-wide policy aimed at preventing sexual harassment and sexual violence based on gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. — The new policy, which applies to all schools within …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Emma Roller / National Journal:

The Improbable Career of Cowboy Poetry Aficionado, Senate Candidate Larry Pressler — The eccentric Larry Pressler is out to prove himself once again. — Larry Pressler, the once-and-maybe-future senator from South Dakota, may be the single most interesting candidate of 2014.

Discussion: Hit & Run, The New Republic, FiveThirtyEight, National Review and Washington Post

Scott Conroy / Real Clear Politics:
Santorum Gearing Up “as If I'm Running” in 2016

Discussion: Mediaite

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Court blocks abortion limits in Texas — Over the dissents of three Justices, the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening barred Texas from enforcing two parts of its new abortion-restriction law — one part as it applied throughout the state, the other as it applied to two clinics in the southwest part of the state.

Discussion: Washington Post, Off the Kuff, Election Law Blog, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and RT

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court Allows Texas Abortion Clinics to Stay Open

Discussion: Washington Monthly, msnbc.com, ACS Blog, Shakesville, Feministing, Austin American-Statesman, Liberaland and New York Magazine

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

A Pump War? — Is it just my imagination or is there a global oil war underway pitting the United States and Saudi Arabia on one side against Russia and Iran on the other? One can't say for sure whether the American-Saudi oil alliance is deliberate or a coincidence of interests, but …

Discussion: JustOneMinute