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:



A New Jersey Transit train crashed into the Hoboken Station Thursday morning, killing one woman and injuring 108. The train was traveling at a high speed, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday, but it is unclear what caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash and the engineer who was driving is in the hospital with critical injuries, but is cooperating.

Read more at NJ.com.

“The Obama administration is maneuvering to pay billions of dollars the government owes to health insurers under the Affordable Care Act, potentially resorting to an obscure Treasury Department fund intended to cover federal legal claims. … Such a move would bypass congressional Republicans, who have criticized certain ACA provisions as industry “bailouts” and blocked the Health and Human Services Department from paying health plans what they are owed.”

Read more at the Washington Post.

Asked at an MSNBC town hall on Wednesday night to name a living foreign leader he admires, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson struggled. Johnson admitted he was having an “Aleppo moment,” referring to another MSNBC appearance earlier this month in which he did not know what Aleppo, the Syrian city at the center of a civil war, was. The second gaffe is raising questions about his foreign policy bona fides.

Read more at NBC News.

A patient in Utah appears to have contracted the Zika virus “through only casual physical contact with an infected person—the first such case that’s been documented.” “Patient 2,” as they are calling this person, visited a 73-year-old in the hospital who had contracted Zika and, in another unusual twist of the virus, actually died. “The second patient probably either had a cut somewhere on his skin, or he inadvertently touched his eyes, nose, or mouth, and the virus entered his body.”

Read more at The Atlantic.

The case highlights how little is known about the Zika virus. After months of infighting, Congress passed funding to Zika research on Wednesday night.

The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to allow emergency alerts sent to your cell phone “to include links to pictures, maps and phone numbers.” They also expanded the character count from 90 to 360, allowing for more information on “severe weather, missing children and other danger,” and is requiring “wireless providers to support Spanish-language alerts.”

Read more at CNN Money.

— Sarah Mimms

Image by Fan Railer/Wikimedia Commons