Good morning. Here is what matters today, in five.
1. Big Bend border wall fight reaches the Supreme Court. The administration filed an emergency appeal Wednesday asking the justices to lift an Oct. 2 ruling that halted construction in Texas’s Big Bend region, warning a 300-mile gap would become a magnet for cartels. Ranchers and environmental groups want the project stopped. via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
2. Mortgage rates finally blink: first drop since August. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed rate slipped to 7.32% from 7.40%, the first weekly decline in two months. It is still more than a point above last year, with the Fed meeting Oct. 27-28. via The Rightist.
3. Glasgow museum hides mummies: the dead didn’t consent. Kelvingrove Art Gallery pulled the remains of the priest Nekht, plus a mummified hand, head and foot, saying its policy only allows display with “documented and informed consent” from the deceased. The coffin stays, with a sign explaining the absence. via STV News.
Three thousand years dead, and Nekht still gets more consultation than Glasgow’s taxpayers.
4. Virginia Democrat Louise Lucas indicted in marijuana money scheme. State Sen. Louise Lucas, 82, two daughters and a grandson are among seven charged in a federal marijuana and money-laundering case. Prosecutors say a wiretap caught her calling it the family’s “last chance at generational wealth.” via The Center Square.
Democrats call it equity. Prosecutors call it eight counts.
5. Sledgehammer attack beheads Marine on Quantico’s Iwo Jima statue. Police caught a 27-year-old Stafford man mid-swing Wednesday night after he knocked the head off one of the flag-raisers on the limestone memorial outside the base. Damage runs to hundreds of thousands; federal sources say his DACA protection lapsed in August. via The Daily Wire.
That is the five. Go win the day.