Today's edition of quick hits:
* Ebola: "A second nurse at a hospital here tested positive for Ebola on Wednesday, the third case of disease confirmed in Dallas in the span of 15 days and the first to heighten fears far beyond the city."
* Related news: "The latest Dallas nurse to contract Ebola boarded a plane in Cleveland two days ago with a slight fever and should not have flown, federal health officials said Wednesday. Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters that the nurse had a temperature of 99.5 degrees before she got on the plane on Monday."
* Nurses' union: "Nurses responding to Ebola in the United States have been poorly trained and provided with inadequate equipment, the nurses' union National Nurses United (NNU) alleged during a heated conference call on Wednesday."
* Texas: "Hours after officials confirmed that a second health care worker had tested positive for Ebola in Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry said that he would cut his pre-scheduled European trip short and return to his home state tomorrow, his office confirmed to NBC News Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Perry's spokesman said the governor had no plans to return early 'at this point.'"
* ISIS: "Fighters from the Islamic State were mustering with tanks, armored vehicles and heavy weapons on Wednesday near a strategically located rural town about 25 miles west of Baghdad in the embattled province of Anbar, local officials said."
* Wall Street "had for the most part shrugged off a recent slide in global stock markets, viewing the declines as an adjustment that was bound to take place after so many years of uninterrupted gains. That complacent view was upended on Wednesday."
* The final, official tally: "The government says the deficit for the just completed 2014 budget year was $483 billion, the lowest of President Barack Obama's six years in office. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says it's an indication the economy is far healthier than when Obama became president in January 2009. The deficit is at its lowest since 2008. When the deficit is measured against the size of the economy, it's below the average deficits of the past 40 years."
* Vanita Gupta is an ACLU attorney who will take over the Civil Rights Division next week: "The newly named acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has called for the legalization and regulation of marijuana, putting her ahead of Attorney General Eric Holder on that issue."
* Waiting for Congress to extend jobless aid is apparently a lost cause: "The White House is rolling out its latest strategy Wednesday to solve the sticky problem of long-term unemployment."
* And we’re still working on our new Whip Count project. We’re keeping a running tally of members of Congress who want to return to session – cutting their vacation short – in order to vote on authorizing military intervention against ISIS. I hope you’ll take a look and keep us posted.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.