It's Friday night, so of course there are several big news stories

It used to be that Friday could be counted on to be a slow news day -- unless of course someone in power had a story they had to release but hoped it could pass under the radar.    There are so  many of those, that now Friday has become a huge news day.   Here's some of what got reported late Friday.

1.  Of course, the hurricane bearing down on Texas is big news and not of any politician's doing.   It's been upgraded to a category 4, and people have been strongly advised to evacuate.   There is a bit of Trump connection, however. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is in charge of things like natural disaster assistance to communities, is without a Director.   It's one of the hundreds of appointed positions that Trump has not submitted any nomination for.

2. The Mueller investigation has passed into a new phase with the issuance of some subpoenas for Grand Jury testimony from some associates of Paul Manafort.   Documents have been subpoenaed previously, but not for testimony -- until now.

3.  Shake-up in the White House staff continued today with the resignation of national security aide to the president, Sebastian Gorka, the Hungarian-born, hard-right, anti-Islam, American-first, foreign policy advocate.   As usual, there's some question of whether he resigned or was pushed, but he has clearly felt that, with Gen. Kelly now in charge as Chief of Staff, Gorka would have little chance to influence policy.    Good riddance.   He was a toxic influence.   

4.  Any hopes that President Trump would just forget about his tweet banning transgender troops were dashed today, when he signed a formal directive.  He immediately bans any new recruits and gives the military some time to figure out what to do with those already serving.   This is not good.

5. And of course there is the Joe Arpaio pardon, which gets its own separate posting below.

Yep, this was a busy Friday news day.

Ralph