Word out of Washington is that a Pentagon policy change allowing transgender members of the military to serve openly is in its final stages of approval.

Originally, we were expecting the change to be announced in March.

Gender dysphoria disqualifies service members under current policy. However, Defense Secretary Ash Carter enacted a de facto moratorium on such dismissals last year as the Defense Department crafted its new guidelines. Officials have been wrestling with several issues regarding transgender troops including recruiting, medical treatment, housing, uniforms and physical fitness standards.

Hope you all don't mind me dumping these two different issues in one essay, but caught them all this morning while busying around and thought they were worth sharing.

Here is Thomas Frank talking about his new book LISTEN, LIBERAL!

The subject of my new book is the Democratic Party’s failure over the last few decades to do anything really meaningful about income inequality.

These would be searches of various electronic items in spy and terrorism cases.

WaPo source

I caught the Diane Rehm show while in the car running errands. The segment to which I listened seemed to be all about the Trump campaign and his relative lack of SuperPac money and organization compared to the Clinton campaign. I heard next to nothing about any policy differences. All I heard was how critically important big money donors are in this election. Here's specifically what I learned from NPR's "expert" panel today: