I grew up walking the boardwalk in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, peering into the froth of the Cape Fear River. The name came from 16th-century mariners who feared its mouth, which was known to churn ships into wrecks. But for the last few decades, there has been something new to fear in the river. The Cape Fear River was tainted with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)…
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The City of Doral is in crisis. Since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, the Florida municipality has found itself in the crosshairs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with ongoing raids and targeted operations that seem to be intensifying in recent weeks. Nearly half of Doral’s population is from Venezuela, the largest population of Venezuelans in any city in the United…
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This is the Oct. 2, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
“All things on earth point home in old October.”— Thomas Wolfe, “Of Time and the River,” 1935
Cool nights. Turning leaves. Sweaters. Football. Baseball playoffs.
October has arrived — even if the Red Sox won’t be part of it. Here’s what’s happening this weekend:
In Boston, things are getting chili at SpicetoberFest, a day of hot sauces and spicy food. Drinks are on hand for anyone who gets in over their head.
In Brooklyn, CultureCon takes over the Navy Yard, with Michael B. Jordan, Mahershala Ali, John Legend, Daniel Kaluuya, Colin Kaepernick, and more.
In Philadelphia, it’s October 1777. The Revolutionary Germantown Festival returns to Cliveden with living history interpreters, tours, candle dipping, papermaking, blacksmithing, and a re-enactment of the Battle of Germantown.
Down I-95, Tom Morello’s Power to the People comes to Merriweather Post Pavilion on Saturday. Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Joan Baez, Public Enemy, Brittany Howard, and special guest Bruce Springsteen are all on the bill. A portion of the proceeds will go to nonprofit groups focused on civic participation.
Farther south, Piedmont Park’s Splish Splash Doggie Bash is Atlanta’s annual canine pool party. Hundreds of dogs. One pool. All tails welcome.
Up in Chicago, the Big Apple comes to Lincoln Square as the neighborhood’s annual Apple Fest fills the streets with fresh-picked apples, cider, seasonal brews, live music, and food stalls. Sweaters encouraged.
In Texas, Austin City Limits marks its 25th year at Zilker Park. Charli XCX, Lorde, The xx, Twenty One Pilots, and Skrillex headline the first of
This is the Oct. 1, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
— Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 1916
They lie even when telling the truth would be better.
They can lie about Jan. 6.
They can lie about rigged elections.
They can lie about everything else.
But here’s what Donald Trump’s Republicans can’t lie about:
Grocery, gas, and diesel bills.
The price of rent, electricity, and healthcare.
American families are paying more for nearly everything than they were when Joe Biden left office, and they know it.
A new AP-NORC poll finds just 17% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. About half now worry about being able to fill their tank and put food on the table.
Meanwhile, Republicans have grown so careless with the facts, they can’t even get straight whether somebody went to an Atlanta Hawks game.
Before Sen. Eric Schmitt accused Jack Smith of perjury, Republican staffers warned him the texts were unvetted. He used them anyway — and made a fool of himself in front of the world. Then he went on a right-wing podcast and doubled down.
It was a perfect microcosm of the Trump era. Lead with lies. Spread them around. Get caught. Keep lying anyway.
They think they live in a post-fact world. But the truth has a way of showing up.
In the end, there it is.
On every receipt in America.
CHARTS OF THE DAY
Source: AP-NORC poll of 2,140 adults conducted Sept. 24 – 28, 2026. Margin of
Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, some of the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.
Raskin rebukes Apple over ICE app
Rep. Jamie Raskin is demanding answers from Apple over the removal of ICEBlock from its App Store — at the Trump administration’s urging. The Maryland Democrat has been looking into Apple’s handling of the app, which allowed users to monitor where Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity was taking place. In a letter dated Monday, Raskin denounced the company’s acceptance of the Justice Department’s rationale that the app posed a threat to federal agents, writing:
In courthouses across the country, federal judges from across the ideological spectrum have raised the alarm about this Administration’s pattern of lying about facts and evidence. Whatever DOJ told Apple about ICEBlock and other similar apps, you would be well advised to interrogate and verify their claims.
Read the letter here.
Moore data center defiance
Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has signed an executive order establishing a panel that will grade large data center projects according to whether they meet the necessary benchmarks to protect surrounding communities.
Read more at Baltimore’s WMAR-TV.
Trump hosts AI execs
President Donald Trump, whose financial disclosure forms have shown massive investments in artificial intelligence companies, hosted several AI executives at a ritzy state dinner for Chinese leader Xi Jinping — an event that came amid the president’s ongoing push to prevent regulation of the industry.
Read more at The New York Times.
Degree data
The Trump administration has finalized a rule that will allow the use of IRS data to assess whether earnings for graduates with certain college degrees should prevent students from taking out
This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 27 episode of “Connect with Jacob Soboroff.”
When we think of the southern border, we usually picture a wall, something physical: visible, tall and stretching across the landscape. But there’s more to the border than the literal barrier. Over the past 25 years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has built a virtual wall, too — a nearly 2,000-mile network of surveillance towers, blimps and drones.
Unlike President Donald Trump’s physical wall, this virtual one hasn’t drawn the same level of controversy. Lawmakers in both parties generally support it, and Democrats have at times embraced it as a more sensible alternative to a literal border wall. Across multiple administrations, billions of dollars have poured into the system.
If the system had worked as advertised, Bernal would have been apprehended — and perhaps he’d still be alive.
Take the towers. CBP describes them as high-tech remote structures that monitor border regions, detect unauthorized crossings and track movement in real time. Using radar, thermal imaging and high-definition cameras, they’re designed to scan the terrain day and night.
More than 800 towers are already in use, with an estimated lifetime price tag of $6.2 billion, according to a 2023 government estimate. That number will almost certainly keep climbing: CBP plans to spend another $1 billion on almost 1,500 more towers enabled with artificial intelligence over the next decade.
That’s a whole lot of money. And CBP says it’s money well spent. The agency claims the technology is safer and “more effective” and helps keep agents “one step ahead.” It also says the virtual wall saves lives, regularly issuing press releases that credit