Axios

Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico made his case to voters for 90 minutes Wednesday night in a CNN and Jubilee town hall.

Why it matters: The event — often a dialogue with voters — amounted to free national airtime for Talarico amid an advertising blitz by his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, who was invited but did not participate.

President Trump has directed his White House counsel to examine explosive allegations dropped on him Friday in the Oval Office:

• Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago, according to four senior administration officials and three insiders briefed on the controversy.
• Grenell denied the accusations as "absurd" and a "lie."
• Habba and her husband, Turhan Mildon, declined to comment through a spokesperson.

Why it matters: The extraordinary row between the two top-tier presidential advisers and former allies provides a rare and acrimonious behind-the-scenes glimpse into the intersection of power, influence and money in Trump's Washington.

Americans' trust in their fellow citizens' democratic judgment has fallen to its lowest recorded level in more than five decades, according to a new Gallup survey.

The big picture: Americans' growing distrust of political leaders and institutions now extends to one another, with Democrats and Republicans showing similar levels of skepticism.

America's inflation problem is becoming harder to contain, with new evidence Wednesday that price pressures are extending beyond the war-related energy shock rattling the global economy.

Why it matters: Inflation is squeezing household budgets and dimming hopes for relief. It is also increasing the prospect that the Fed will have to raise interest rates further.

Some of the nation's largest banks denied financial services to liberal and conservative organizations over their political or religious views, according to a bank regulator report that documents specific cases.

Why it matters: The report shows instances of politically motivated debanking — a practice the Trump administration has accused major financial institutions of engaging in. But officials could not determine how widespread it was.

Social Security recipients will see the largest rise in their monthly payments in four years in January, with a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment.

Driving the news: The Social Security Administration announced the 2027 COLA adjustment for 76 million recipients of retirement and disability benefits, which by law is calculated based on the Consumer Price Index for the July-through-September quarter.

Getting comms leaders into the executive meeting may be the easy part — getting the rest of the company to act on their advice is harder.

Why it matters: The reputational risks corporate affairs leaders have to manage often originate in business decisions about products, jobs, technology and public policy.

• But spotting those risks early is only valuable if the business is willing and able to do something about them.

U.S. inflation picked up in September as soaring energy prices added to already stubborn price pressures, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.

Why it matters: The latest Consumer Price Index shows that the inflation fight is far from over — and makes further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes more likely as Americans struggle with higher costs.

Texas Democrats are for the first time polling slightly ahead of Republicans in several down-ballot statewide races, according to the final University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll ahead of the November election.

Why it matters: Republicans in Texas have dominated statewide elections for more than three decades, but the latest poll suggests Democrats are competitive in races beyond the closely watched U.S. Senate contest.

Investment into AI is taking up a lot of the oxygen in the U.S. markets, and Wall Street's worries over its crowding-out effect appear to be spreading.

Why it matters: The surge of money flooding into this one sector is helping drive up borrowing costs for everyone — from the U.S. government to non-AI businesses to everyday Americans who face ever-higher rates for mortgages and auto loans.