Alleged Cop-Killer Caught, Libertarian Candidate Keeps Defending Clinton and More You Missed in Politics Today

It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:

1. "Suspect Caught in 'Ambush-Style' Shootings of 2 Des Moines-Area Officers"

Police arrested a suspect in the killing of two police officers near Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday. Scott Michael Greene, 46, is accused of fatally shooting the officers in their patrol cars in two separate incidents early Wednesday morning. "Police were still investigating what provoked the killings."

Read more at NBC News.

Congress has active legislation that would make the murder of a police officer a new federal crime, potentially punishable by the death penalty. Read more about the Back the Blue Act and let your reps know what you think.

2. "Libertarian VP Candidate Bill Weld Is ‘Vouching’ for Clinton, Will Still Vote for His Running Mate"

Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee Bill Weld has taken to praising Hillary Clinton, even as he’s campaigning for Gary Johnson. In a Rachel Maddow Show interview Tuesday night, Weld said that he was there "vouching for Mrs. Clinton, and I think it’s high time somebody did." Weld, who said in September that “he doesn’t think anyone is ‘more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States,’” has drawn raised eyebrows from some Libertarians.

Read more at New York Magazine.

3. "GOP Aides Predict Trump Loss, Control of Both House and Senate"

A new survey of Republican aides on Capitol Hill "underscores the rift that’s arisen between the Republican base and its establishment in Washington." While Donald Trump “won the GOP primaries with ease and has lately drawn close to Clinton in the polls,” 38 percent of Republican congressional staffers who responded to the poll (a plurality) “said they planned to vote for a third-party candidate this year. Only 30 percent committed to Trump, and 18 percent said they’d back the other party’s candidate, Clinton.” Additionally, the staffers believe that while Trump will lose the election, the GOP will retain control of both the House and Senate.

Read more at Roll Call.

4. "Should Congress Take Over D.C.’s Failing Metro System?"

Washington D.C.’s 40-year-old Metro transit system is kind of falling apart. It faces a potentially dangerous need for upgrades, a nearly-$3 billion unfunded pension liability and an estimated $290 million deficit in the next fiscal year, the Washington Post reports. That’s why on Wednesday, Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans proposed a radical new solution: Have the federal government take it over.

Read more at Countable.

5. "How the Internet Is Loosening Our Grip on the Truth"

"[T]he internet is distorting our collective grasp on the truth. Polls show that many of us have burrowed into our own echo chambers of information. In a recent Pew Research Center survey, 81 percent of respondents said that partisans not only differed about policies, but also about ‘basic facts.’ … For years, technologists and other utopians have argued that online news would be a boon to democracy. That has not been the case."

Read more at the New York Times.

— Sarah Mimms

Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr