WASHINGTON—The Republican National Committee asked members to avoid election-related “ballot security” activities, such as poll watching in their capacity as Republican Party officers, citing a decades-old court settlement restricting such activities by national GOP officials.

As part of a 1982 settlement in a lawsuit brought by Democrats, the RNC agreed to curb its efforts to monitor and challenge voter eligibility at the polls, especially in districts where the racial or ethnic composition of the electorate could be a factor in the outcome.

RNC general counsel John Ryder wrote to members on Wednesday to “remind you of the restrictions placed on the RNC by the consent decree.”

The RNC membership is made up of 168 state party representatives, three from each state and territory.

Statement from DHS and ODNI:

The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.

Some states have also recently seen scanning and probing of their election-related systems, which in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company. However, we are not now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian Government. The USIC and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assess that it would be extremely difficult for someone, including a nation-state actor, to alter actual ballot counts or election results by cyber attack or intrusion. This assessment is based on the decentralized nature of our election system in this country and the number of protections state and local election officials have in place. States ensure that voting machines are not connected to the Internet, and there are numerous checks and balances as well as extensive oversight at multiple levels built into our election process.

Nevertheless, DHS continues to urge state and local election officials to be vigilant and seek cybersecurity assistance from DHS. A number of states have already done so. DHS is providing several services to state and local election officials to assist in their cybersecurity. These services include cyber “hygiene” scans of Internet-facing systems, risk and vulnerability assessments, information sharing about cyber incidents, and best practices for securing voter registration databases and addressing potential cyber threats. DHS has convened an Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group with experts across all levels of government to raise awareness of cybersecurity risks potentially affecting election infrastructure and the elections process. Secretary Johnson and DHS officials are working directly with the National Association of Secretaries of State to offer assistance, share information, and provide additional resources to state and local officials.

Howard Stern confirmed Tuesday that Donald Trump expressed support for the Iraq War on his radio show in 2002 -- a claim Trump has denied despite a show recording of him offering at least measured backing.

The shock jock -- whose interview was referenced during Monday night's presidential debate -- told his listeners that Trump was "kinda for the Iraq War" and "us going into Iraq."

The interview was brought up because Trump "was saying he wasn't really for it, so they were forced to mention my name," Stern said.

Stern added that it was "kind of thrilling" to be mentioned at a presidential debate. His remarks were first reported by BuzzFeed Thursday.

A message left with Trump's campaign Thursday night seeking response to Stern's comments was not immediately returned.

With rhetorical bows to Pericles, Ecclesiastes, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Shakespeare and Tom Joad, Austin Mayor Steve Adler defended the taco truck and the desirability of having one on every corner in a mock epic speech at the Texas Democratic Party’s annual Johnson-Jordan Dinner Saturday night at the JW Marriott Austin.

“We in this room know taco trucks for what they are: the very ambassadors of community, of justice, and of guacamole — truly all that makes life worth living, the very bedrocks of our democracy, and of our breakfast,” declared Adler, who then, channeling his inner Churchill, continued, “And so I enjoin you friends to stand with me, to tell the enemies of taco trucks that we will fight them on the street corners. We will fight them in the parks. We will fight them with tortillas, cheese, and chorizo. We will fight them with growing confidence at breakfast and at lunch, and most of all, after closing time.

“We. Will. Never. Surrender. And when it is over, we shall say, never before have so many eaten so well so often.”

Adler was responding to a now famous, much ridiculed comment from Marco Gutierrez, the founder of Latinos for Trump, in a Sept. 1 appearance on MSNBC in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s Aug. 31 visit to Mexico and very tough speech that night in Phoenix on immigration, the border wall, and mass deportation.

“Right now, 92 million Americans are on the sideline outside of the workforce, and they’re not a part of our economy. It’s a silent nation of jobless Americans.”

— Donald Trump, speech to the Economic Club of New York, Sept. 15, 2016

Trump is grabbing onto a GOP talking point that first emerged in 2014 when the official unemployment rate starting falling below 7 percent. (It is now 4.9 percent.) Republicans started citing a decline in the labor participation rate, which has occurred largely because the baby boom generation has begun to retire.

But here, Trump expresses the rate as a raw number (“92 million Americans”) and then amps up the rhetoric by referring to a “nation of jobless Americans.” But this is rhetorical poppycock, as we will demonstrate.....

The Pinocchio Test

As you can see, it is absurd to claim that 94 million Americans are on the sidelines of the economy and are part of a “jobless America.” You can’t be jobless if you don’t want a job.

Only a small percentage of these people want a job, as the rest are retired, in school, on disability or caring for children. No matter how much Trump wants to suggest the economy is on the rocks, the fact remains that the unemployment rate is below 5 percent — which is pretty good by any measure.

Four Pinocchios