Above the Fold

BORDER FORTIFICATION: “Defense Secretary Mark Esper has signed off on spending $3.6 billion in Defense Department construction funds for 175 miles of wall on the southern border with Mexico. … Use of the money had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit proceeded. Last month, however, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the use of about $2.5 billion. A border wall was a keystone of the president’s 2016 election campaign, but Congress has resisted funding all of it. This year it allocated $1.4 billion, but the president wanted much more.” (Fox News)

VACUOUS VIRTUE SIGNALING: “Walmart said Tuesday it will discontinue all sales of handgun ammunition and sales of short-barrel rifle ammunition that can be used with military-style weapons, following two ‘horrific’ shootings at Walmart stores this summer. It will also stop all handgun sales in Alaska, marking its complete exit from the handguns category. The biggest retailer in the world also is asking customers at Walmart and Sam’s Club to no longer openly carry firearms in stores, in states where ‘open carry’ is allowed, unless they are authorized law enforcement officers.” (CNBC)

Around the Nation

HURRICANE DORIAN UPDATE: “Hurricane Dorian gradually leaves Florida behind Wednesday, setting its sights on the coasts of Georgia and then the Carolinas. These areas face a triple threat of ‘destructive winds, flooding rains, and life-threatening storm surges,’ according to the National Hurricane Center. While Dorian has stayed far enough off the coast to largely spare Florida from the worst of its wrath, it is forecast to make a much closer approach to the coastline of the Carolinas between late Wednesday and Thursday and could even make landfall. Impacts are thus expected to be more severe.” (Capital Weather Gang)

BACKGROUND-CHECK LOOPHOLE: According to National Review, “The lone gunman who killed seven and injured 22 in a series of drive-by shootings in Odessa and Midland, Texas on Saturday obtained the firearm he used in the attack through an illegal private sale. Local police told ABC News and other outlets that the shooter … previously attempted to purchase a firearm from a licensed seller but was denied after failing a background check due to his history of ‘mental illness.’ He then purchased the ‘AR-15 type’ rifle that he used in the attack from a private seller who was under no legal obligation to conduct a background check on him.” This is one of the few legit gun loopholes that conservatives might feel obligated to address.

SOLVING THE BIG PROBLEMS: “The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed a resolution declaring the National Rifle Association a "domestic terrorist organization” and urged the federal government to do the same — the latest escalation in the heated rhetoric from Democrats regarding the NRA in the wake of several deadly mass shootings.“ (Fox News)

DISTRICT SMACKDOWN: "A North Carolina court on Tuesday struck down the state’s current legislative districts for violating the rights of Democratic voters, forcing districts to be withdrawn ahead of the 2020 election. The three-judge panel’s opinion says that North Carolina’s General Assembly ‘had a partisan intent to create legislative districts that perpetuated a Republican-controlled’ assembly when drawing maps in 2017.” (The Hill)

Other Notables

WARNING SIGNS: “A key U.S. factory gauge unexpectedly contracted for the first time since 2016, sending stocks and bond yields lower and boosting expectations for interest-rate cuts as global manufacturing woes deepen. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index fell to 49.1 in August, weaker than all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists, data released Tuesday showed. Figures below 50 indicate the manufacturing economy is generally shrinking. The group’s gauge of new orders dropped to a more than seven-year low, while the production index hit the lowest since late 2015.” (Bloomberg)

BREXIT BLOCKADE: “British prime minister Boris Johnson’s government was defeated in a [328]-301 vote on Tuesday by a group of rebel lawmakers who have opted to seize control of parliament in order to block the no-deal Brexit that Johnson has repeatedly threatened. A block of the Conservative Party sided with the opposition Labour Party in voting to seize control of parliamentary business on Wednesday in order to pass a bill that would prevent Johnson from exiting the European Union on the October 31 deadline without a deal.” (National Review)

HONG KONG CONCEDES: “Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said she will withdraw the highly controversial extradition bill which triggered months of protests. The proposal, introduced in April, would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. The bill was suspended in June when Ms Lam called it ‘dead’, but she stopped short of withdrawing it.” (BBC)

Closing Arguments

POLICY: Giving mass shooters the death penalty is a useless virtue signal (Washington Examiner)

POLICY: To lower residential energy costs, “waive” goodbye to the Jones Act (American Enterprise Institute)

SATIRE: Walmart discontinues auto part sales to prevent car accidents (The Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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