memeorandum: COLUMBUS, Ga. — A new WRBL News 3, The Ledger-Enquirer newspaper … (James Brierton/WRBL-TV)

10:45 AM ET, October 17, 2014

Top Items:

Steve Mason / ABC News:

Hospital Worker Who Handled Ebola Samples Is on Cruise Ship — A Dallas health care worker who handled clinical specimens from an Ebola-infected patient is on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, with the worker self-quarantined and being monitored for signs of infection, the State Department said in a statement.

Discussion: 6abc.com, Truth Revolt and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Greg Botelho / CNN:

Nurse may have had symptoms of Ebola longer than first thought — Are you on the front lines of Ebola? We'd like to hear your story. — (CNN) — A nurse with Ebola may have shown symptoms of the virus as many as four days before authorities once indicated, meaning that she might …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, Instapundit and Business Insider

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Charles Krauthammer: Ebola vs. civil liberties — Unnervingly, the U.S. public health services remain steps behind the Ebola virus. Contact tracing is what we do, Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Frieden assured the nation. It will stop the epidemic “in its tracks.”

Discussion: Betsy's Page

New York Times:

Keeping Ebola at Bay — The Ebola cases in the United States show that American hospitals and public health officials have much to learn about effective ways to protect health care workers and the public from possible infection. — Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the first hospital put to the test …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and Business Insider

Rachelle Blidner / NY Daily News:
Ebola patient Nina Pham arrives at Maryland hospital after thanking Texas medical staff in emotional video

Discussion: Liberaland, New York Magazine, 6abc.com and Gawker

Ford Vox / CNN:
Why CDC chief must go

Discussion: Fox News, Business Insider and The Scoop Blog

Eun Kyung Kim / TODAY:
Dallas nurse Briana Aguirre: ‘We never talked about Ebola’ before Thomas Eric Duncan arrived

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Guardian, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, NBC News, Corrente, The PJ Tatler, Wall Street Journal and Outside the Beltway

Wall Street Journal:

Biden's Son Hunter Discharged From Navy Reserve After Failing Cocaine Test — Lawyer Pursued Military Service Relatively Late as a Public-Affairs Officer — WASHINGTON—Vice President Joe Biden 's son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine …

Eric Bradner / CNN:

Biden's son discharged from Navy after testing positive for cocaine — Washington (CNN) — The Navy Reserve discharged Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter this year after he tested positive for cocaine, U.S. officials confirmed. — The discharge of Biden, a 44-year-old lawyer …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Scared Monkeys, Truth Revolt, Business Insider and Raw Story

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republican Joni Ernst Admits Why Republicans Really Hate Obamacare — Another secret recording. — Shares — Conservatives have made a series of specific predictions about the effects of Obamacare — overall costs would rise, insurers would flee the exchanges, premiums would go up, the ranks of the uninsured would not even fall.

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality, Washington Center … and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Joni Ernst's hog-castrating ideology, revealed!

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo and Liberaland

Politico:
As Dems sweat Iowa, Sen. Tom Harkin sits on millions

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Laura Bassett / The Huffington Post:
Senate Candidate Joni Ernst Endorses Federal Personhood Bill For Fetuses

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, msnbc.com, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Roll Call and PoliticusUSA

New York Post:

Alarm after vomiting passenger dies on flight from Nigeria to JFK — Demonstrators demand a travel ban outside the White House on Oct. 16 to stop the spread of the Ebola virus. — A plane from Nigeria landed at JFK Airport Thursday with a male passenger aboard who had died during the flight …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times and Vox Popoli

Jake Tapper / CNN:

First on CNN: Obama will name Ron Klain as Ebola Czar — (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images) — Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama will appoint Ron Klain his “Ebola czar,” knowledgeable sources tell CNN. — The president on Thursday signaled his openness to the idea …

Discussion: Business Insider and Mashable

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Blitzer Grills Rick Scott: Why Was Crist's Fan an Issue in the First Place? — Florida Governor Rick Scott appeared on CNN earlier tonight to address “fangate” and why he didn't appear on stage to debate Charlie Crist for several minutes. Wolf Blitzer asked Scott why exactly this was an issue of contention in the first place.

Discussion: Washington Post

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
“It's An Object of Gallows Humor for the Staff”

Discussion: Raw Story, The Mahablog, his vorpal sword, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice, nationalnursesunited.org and Mediaite

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

What Markets Will — In the Middle Ages, the call for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land was met with cries of “Deus vult!” — God wills it. But did the crusaders really know what God wanted? Given how the venture turned out, apparently not. — Now, that was a long time ago, and …

Politico:

Why a travel ban wouldn't work — The political momentum for a travel ban on West African nations continued to swell Thursday, but health and transportation experts were uniform in saying it wouldn't stem the spread of Ebola — and could do more harm than good.

Discussion: The Federalist and Mediaite

Yuval Levin / National Review:
Lessons of the Ebola Crisis

Discussion: Power Line and Yahoo! News

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

Insiders Blame Rove for Covering Up Iraq's Real WMD — There's one man, some Republicans say, who kept the public from learning about the chemical shells littered around Iraq. He was Bush's most important political adviser. — Starting in 2004, some members of the George W. Bush administration …

Discussion: American Thinker, American Spectator, Balloon Juice and The Dish

The Hill:

Ebola, Wall Street stock slide deepen '14 gloom for Dems — The Democrats' midterm prospects took a beating this week as concerns over the Ebola virus and a jittery economy churned up countless grim headlines and darkened an already-dissatisfied national mood.

Politico: Obama's Ebola challenge

Mark Steyn / Steyn Online:

Protocol Theatre — Thomas Frieden has now got his Protocol Ali routine down pat: … Gotcha. You can't get Ebola on a bus or a plane, you can only give it. Good to know. Thanks, Doc. — The Centers for Disease Control is one of those elite federal agencies that people hitherto assumed was …

Discussion: Power Line, Weekly Standard, Truth Revolt, Daily Mail and CBS Dallas

Mike Allen / Politico:

Paul: African-American leaders may not yet embrace GOP — Sen. Rand Paul tells POLITICO that the Republican presidential candidate in 2016 could capture one-third or more of the African-American vote by pushing criminal-justice reform, school choice and economic empowerment.

Discussion: Washington Times

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties — In August, Tom Steyer and seven campaign advisers sat in a small conference room in Coral Gables, Fla., trying to figure out how to save the world. Steyer, who is 57, has a fortune of roughly $1.5 billion …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Stuart Stevens / The Daily Beast:

How Older Voters Will Decide Your Future — Older voters are the electorate's fast growing demographic - and a major reason Republicans can win big in 2016. — The political impact of shifting demographics is a hot topic. Judging from the coverage, it would be easy to assume …