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Getty / Joe Raedle / Staff

HURRICANE MICHAEL—The death toll rose to 11 today in the wake of the Category 4 hurricane that smashed its way across the Florida panhandle, writes the New York Times. The stories and photographs from the region are devastating.

"THE STORY MISSING FROM THE REPORTS"—30-year-old Samuel E. Rice, who was fatally shot by Portland police earlier this week, had a history of mental illness, reports the Mercury's Alex Zielinski. "That's the story missing from the reports so far," says Ken Hansen, who says he worked to get Rice long-term help. "It's easier for the community to handle a bad-guy versus good-guy story."

MIDTERMS OF DOOM—Senate Majority Turtle Mitch McConnell, who recently helped ram through a conspiracy theorist Supreme Court justice who has been accused of multiple counts of sexual assault, is sounding reeeeal smug as he brags about how Kavanaugh came along at just at the right time. "What we are now seeing is that the enthusiasm and energy on the Republican side comes close to matching the Democratic side," McConnell tells NPR, "and given the states that we're competing in, that's really good news for us."

GNOME THIEVES MUST PAY—A Georgia man who was arrested in July for stealing "hundreds of items... ranging from birdbaths and hanging plants to a wide variety of garden gnomes" was re-arrested yesterday "after he failed to appear in court... on his 67 charges of receiving stolen property," reports Louisville's Courier Journal. After the police received a hot tip that he was hiding in an attic, the Courier Journal adds, the gnome thief "suffered injuries after he fell out of the attic."

WHITE HOUSE ROMANCE—A day after claiming to be "the most bullied person in the world," Melania Trump says she has "much more important things to think about and to do" than concern herself with her husband's alleged affairs with women including Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. When asked if she loved her husband, she replied with the 100 percent convincing "Yes, we are fine."

JAMAL KHASHOGGI—"Turkish authorities have audio and visual evidence that shows journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul just over a week ago," says CNN, citing a source "familiar with the ongoing investigation."

BETO—"After learning about Sebastian Esquivel, a Latino man who felt the Texas race 'doesn’t really matter,' O’Rourke cold-called Esquivel to help him register to vote," writes the Guardian. After calling Esquivel, "O’Rourke used his network of fired-up young volunteers to send a field worker to Gonzales, some 70 miles away, to persuade Esquivel to register. The cook duly did so, and the O’Rourke volunteer then drove him to the post box to mail it." BETO O'ROURKE: HE WILL FUCKING MAKE YOU VOTE. HE WILL FUCKING FIND YOU.