Warning: major spoilers for Hell Fest lie ahead.

Hell Fest. It’s a cheap Halloween knockoff set in a Six Flags commercial, but with a surprisingly clever ending.

This past weekend, Hell Fest kicked off the October slasher box office with more of a whimper than a scream. Receiving mostly negative reviews, the tale of a traveling horror carnival turned terrifying torture chamber left theaters less than packed. 

Consequently, the hugely forgettable villain of this “been there, done that” flop won’t be joining the varsity league of cinematic masked killers anytime soon. 

But his creepy part in a memorable ending could snag the film a footnote in horror history… if only because people can’t stop fighting about it.

Some viewers loved it.

Others really hated it.

And, plenty just didn’t get it.

So, what divisive conclusion made Hell Fest and its villain—”The Other”—worth talking about? Here’s a recap.

Following a gruesome fight to the finish against two badass final girls (Amy Forsyth and Reign Edwards), our hooded killer slips away from the park and into the night, narrowly avoiding capture. 

“Daddy! Did you bring me something?”

The Other then enters a cozy suburban home, still donning his off-brand Freddy Krueger look. Once inside, he opens up a large wardrobe, revealing half a dozen other Halloween masks and knick-knacks—presumably keep sakes from past killings. Without showing his face to camera, The Other removes his current mask and places a photo strip of two of his Hell Fest victims into the wardrobe. 

Moments later, he walks into a quiet living room where a little blonde girl is asleep on the couch. The Other’s outline ominously hovers in the door frame, seemingly threatening the sleeping child. His face still does not show.

As you watch, you brace yourself for a last horrifying murder when, suddenly, the girl pops up off the couch and runs towards her presumed attacker. “Daddy! Did you bring me something?” she gleefully screams.

The anonymous man hands his daughter a toy from the carnival (one he took from a guy he beat to death with a mallet, by the way), gives her a big hug, and the credits roll. 

Confused? Understandable. This bizarre exchange ties back to a specific bit of dialogue early in the film’s setup that is pretty easy to miss. When the main characters first enter the park, they discuss the undetectable monsters who “walk among us” in a joking context. (It’s adequately creepy, but hardly screams major thematic point.)

The ending is a startling depiction of such a monster, a seemingly normal man with an ordinary life… who just so happens to hire a babysitter one night of the year so he can murder local teenagers.

Hell Fest forces its viewers to consider the monsters they may encounter off screen. 

Overall, the father and daughter reunion ending is a considerable departure from the rest of the film—and that’s good or bad depending on your horror preferences.

If you’re seeing Hell Fest for the slasher vibes, this won’t do much for you. But if you are a lover of true crime accounts and crippling paranoia, this ending might get you to appreciate the film’s story more than you expected. 

By grounding 90 minutes of cartoony murder in a contrasting moment of realism and humanity, Hell Fest forces its viewers to consider the monsters they may actually encounter off screen. 

IRL terrorizers aren’t accompanied by ominous music and they don’t wear Party City masks. Instead, they regularly glide through life, quietly waiting to strike, appearing like anyone else. They may have lovely homes, affordable cars, adorable kids, even subscriptions to Audible. You simply can’t know their hidden danger until it’s too late.

All in all, Hell Fest likely won’t give you a newfound phobia of theme parks and masked strangers. But it does have a pretty decent shot at scaring you off of public spaces and strangers in general… because what you might not find frightening at first could turn out to be a total hell fest.

Hell Fest is in theaters now.

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Meghan McCain’s full eulogy of her father, Senator John S. McCain
USA TODAY

Meghan McCain announced Monday that she will return to “The View” on October 8.

McCain, 33, has been absent from the talk show since its season premiere on September 4. Her father, Sen. John McCain, died August 25. 

“Thank you all for your patience & understanding,” she tweeted, accompanied by a political cartoon of herself in a boxing ring with “DAD” written on her boxing glove. 

She continued, loosely quoting a line from “Rocky Balboa”: “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard can you get hit and keep moving forward.” 

“The View” also tweeted in support of McCain along with a promotional video of the cast. 

“I’m speaking for the middle of the country. I’m not intimidated by anyone,” McCain says in the video. “I really like working with people who believe what they’re saying.”

More: Meghan McCain says father’s ‘America was always great’ during speech at National Cathedral

More: Meghan McCain remembers John McCain as ‘hero of the republic and to his little girl’

Meanwhile, her co-hosts had plenty of hot topics to discuss Monday. In clips posted to the show’s Twitter account, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Abby Huntsman talked about Sen. Jeff Flake’s “elevator moment,”  Matt Damon’s portrayal of Brett Kavanaugh on “Saturday Night Live”  and Kanye West’s controversial post-SNL rant about abolishing the 13th Amendment (which outlawed slavery).

“The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, Kanye,” Goldberg said while ripping up her cue card. “So maybe, maybe, you want to think and write it down before you say it so that you know what you’re saying. 

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Cardi B, who performed at a major concert in New York’s Central Park Saturday night, spent Monday at a police station in Queens after she was arrested and charged with misdemeanor reckless endangerment and assault stemming from a strip club fight in August.

Officer Andrew Lava, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, confirmed that the platinum-selling rapper, accompanied by her attorney, surrendered at the 109th Precinct, was arrested and released with a “desk appearance ticket” to return to face the charges at a later, unspecified court date.

Because the charges are misdemeanors, she was eligible to be released on a desk appearance ticket, Lava said. 

Her attorney, Jeff Kern, acknowledged that she’d received the summons as they left a Queens police station on Monday, declaring he’s “aware of no evidence” that Cardi B “caused anybody any harm.”

The charges involve a fight-turned-assault at the Angels Strip Club, not far from the precinct, on Aug. 29, in which Cardi B and some in her entourage are alleged to have thrown furniture recklessly, causing injuries to employees’ feet and legs.

No one else has yet been arrested or charged in connection with the melee, Lava said. 

Neither Lava nor another NYPD spokesperson, Officer Arlene Muniz, could provide much detail about the incident but TMZ and ABC News, among others, reported it was a bar fight that involved an assault on two women bartenders and it allegedly involved people Cardi B was with that night. 

A photo of the hip-hop star leaving the precinct showed her wearing Marilyn Monroe-style blond hair, a white blouse and white heels and a khaki skirt split up the side. 

Cardi B, 25, was in New York Saturday night performing at the 2018 Global Citizen Concert in Central Park’s Great Lawn.

She is not a stranger to trouble and disputes. Her most recent dust-up, with fellow rap star Nicki Minaj, occurred less than a month ago at a New York Fashion Week party, where the two got into a fight that led to Cardi B being escorted out sporting a huge lump over her eye.

A person who witnessed the incident who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press that Minaj was finishing up a conversation with someone when Cardi B tried to attack her, but Minaj’s security guards intervened.

Later, Cardi B alleged on Instagram that Minaj had made disparaging remarks about her ability to be a good mother. (She and rapper Offset recently welcomed a daughter.) Minaj called that “a bunch of lies.”

Her reps at Atlantic Records did not immediately respond to an email from USA TODAY seeking comment.

Contributing: Associated Press

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The US and Canada on Sunday sealed the deal on a new trade agreement that, along with an earlier US-Mexico agreement, opens to door to a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The new deal, dubbed the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is expected to be signed by the leaders of the three member countries — US President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto — in November. The deal must also be approved by each country’s legislature before it can come into force.

While Peter Navarro, the director of the White House National Trade Council, said the new deal means that “NAFTA is dead,” the USMCA still retains large swaths of the original deal.

For instance, Canada scored wins with the preservation of NAFTA’s state-to-state dispute-resolution system and cultural provisions that carve out a certain amount of the Canadian media market for domestically produced programming.

But there are also some notable changes in the USMCA from the 25-year-old NAFTA, including increased dairy-market access, new auto rules, and a sunset clause.

Here’s a rundown of some of the key changes in the deal:

• Review clause: The USMCA includes a 16-year expiration date and a provision that requires a review of the deal every six years, when it can be extended. It’s less severe than the US’s original demand for a sunset clause, which would have forced each side to recertify the deal every five years to keep it in effect.
• Dispute settlement: NAFTA’s dispute-settlement system, which allows member countries to bring grievances against other members over allegations of unfair trading practices, will remain the same, a key win for the Canadians. The investor-state dispute-settlement system, which allows investors to bring grievances against member-country governments, will be phased out for the US and Canada, while certain industries such as energy will be able to bring cases against Mexico.
• Dairy access: The US will be able to export the equivalent of 3.6% of Canada’s dairy market, up from the existing level of about 1%. This is slightly above the 3.25% market access Canada would have given the US as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump pulled the US out of last year. In addition, Canada will get rid of the “Class 7” pricing system that was seen as disadvantaging US farmers.
• Access for other agricultural goods: Canada will give the US more access to its chicken, turkey, and egg markets, and British Columbia will allow the sale of US wines at its state-owned liquor stores. Mexico agreed to allow imports of certain US cheeses.
• Auto rules: Members must produce 75% of a car for it to pass through the countries duty-free, up from 62.5%. Additionally, 40% of each car must be produced by workers making $16 an hour or more to avoid duties.
• Tariff side deals: The US came to side agreements with Mexico and Canada that would largely protect the two countries from tariffs on imported autos and auto parts. Canada would be allowed to ship 2.6 million cars to the US without tariffs, well above the 1.8 million it sent last year, and send $32.4 billion worth of parts without getting hit by tariffs. Mexico’s deal was similar, except the country can send $108 billion worth of parts.
• Commitment to not mess with currency levels: While the US, Mexico, and Canada do not actively intervene to strengthen or weaken their currencies, the pact to “achieve and maintain a market-determined exchange rate regime” could be a model for future agreements with countries that are more active in currency markets.
• Increased protections for intellectual property: The deal increases the copyright period in Canada to 70 years after the creator’s death, up from 50 years, bringing the country in line with the US. Additionally, exclusivity for biologic drugs before generics can be produced will be increased to 10 years in Canada from eight years, a win for the pharma industry.
• Increase in the de minimis levels: The de minimis level is the amount of a good a person can take across the border without being hit with duties. Canada will increase the de minimis level for US goods to 40 Canadian dollars from 20 Canadian dollars; for cross-border shipments like e-commerce, the level will be boosted to 150 Canadian dollars. Mexico will also bump its de minimis level to $50 and duty-free shipments to $117.

October is going to be another big month for comics. New York Comic Con begins later this week, bringing with it all kinds of previews of upcoming comics, cartoons, and superhero stories (stay tuned to EW for more coverage as that all unfolds). On top of that, it’s October, and the Halloween month always ushers in a hunger for spooky and atmospheric stories.

In that regard, this month’s slate of comics will certainly not disappoint. There are plenty of witches and devils to be found on the page this October, as well as something even stranger: The full history of professional wrestling.

Below, check out EW’s recommendations for what comics to look for this month.

Justice League Dark and Wonder Woman: The Witching Hour (DC)
James Tynion IV (writer), Alvaro Martinez (artist)

Within the span of just three issues, DC’s new Justice League Dark series has already set the stakes as high as possible for its magical superheroes. Magic itself is under attack, and now Zatanna can’t even speak one of her trademark backwards spells without invoking the monstrous Otherkin. Recently, the only thing that saved this fledgling team from the demonic Upside Down Man was Wonder Woman’s unexpected burst of magical power. This month, the team will explore the nature of Diana’s previously hidden connection to magic in a five-issue crossover spanning this month’s issues of Justice League Dark and Wonder Woman, along with two bookend one-shots.

This investigation will bring them face-to-face with the ancient witch goddess Hecate, rendered in terrifying, three-headed form by Martinez’s gorgeously unnerving art. But of course, the most important element of constructing such a grand magical horror story for this Halloween month is using a character who doesn’t know what to expect — which is one reason why Tynion was so keen to have Wonder Woman lead these mystical misfits.

“The magical side of the DC Universe has fans like me who know these strange characters backwards and forwards, but to do a horror story you need to center it on people who still have things to discover, where it’s still a mystery to them,” Tynion told EW in July. “The idea of creating a situation that would make Diana afraid, when you know how fearless and powerful she is, that makes it scary and makes the fear real to the reader.”

Pre-order the five parts of The Witching Hour crossover here, here, here, here, and here. 

Lucifer #1 (DC/Vertigo)
Dan Watters (writer), Max Fiumara and Sebastian Fiumara (artists)

Lucifer stories have been told before. Neil Gaiman first introduced this David Bowie-esque devil in the pages of his iconic Sandman series, after which Mike Carey picked up the torch for a 75-issue solo Lucifer comic. Most recently, this version of Lucifer has even made it to TV (coming soon to a Netflix near you). Now, Lucifer is back in comics (as part of the greater Sandman Universe revival at DC/Vertigo), and it’s a credit to Watters and the Fiumara’s that it already feels significantly different than what’s come before.

Whereas Lucifer Morningstar is usually a brilliant manipulator staying two steps ahead of everyone around him, this series finds the devil in a dark place. Blinded, bedraggled, tortured, and imprisoned by unknown assailants in an unknown locale, Lucifer is still as as righteously indignant as ever. But this time, his rage against the machine is played for dark absurdity rather than romantic tragedy; at one point in the first issue, Watters overlays epic Paradise Lost quotes about Lucifer’s rebellion against a surreal sequence of the modern Lucifer getting beaten and humiliated by his captors.

“We’re taking this figure who’s always been so furious about the world despite being this Apollonian beauty, and seeing how does he react when he actually does start to fall apart?” Watters told EW in August.

The first issue of Lucifer sets up lots of new characters and concepts that will surely be parceled out over the next few months, but already it rewards rereading like any good Sandman-affiliated comic. Plus, the Fiumaras’ art is full of just enough strange monsters to keep you adequately spooked during this Halloween month.

Pre-order Lucifer #1 here.

Blackbird #1 (Image Comics)
Sam Humphries (writer), Jen Bartel (artist)

Over the past few years, Bartel has become a red-hot artist much in demand for variant covers and prints, with her booth often drawing crowds of fans at comic conventions. Blackbird is her very first monthly comic (at one point she was attached to a Storm comic for Marvel alongside Ta-Nehisi Coates, but those plans appear to have been scuttled for now) and is set to bring together all her favorite things to draw: Demons, monsters, magical symbols, and most importantly, hot people kissing.

The story of Blackbird follows a young woman named Nina Rodriguez as she realizes there’s an entire magical world hiding underneath the veneer of Los Angeles. She’s correct, but no one else believes her, which adds a layer of allegory. Humphries and Bartel told the L.A. Times that they wanted to present a vision of L.A. like the one actually experienced by long-time residents like them, rather than the typical pop culture stereotype of beaches and Hollywood.

Pre-order Blackbird #1 here.

Shuri #1 (Marvel)
Nnedi Okorafor (writer), Leonardo Romero (artist)

Everyone’s favorite character from Black Panther has never had her own self-titled comic series before, but that changes this month. Nnedi Okorafor has already written a few Black Panther comics over the past year, so no one is better set up to reconcile the film and comic versions of Shuri. While Letitia Wright’s Shuri was a precocious tech genius, Shuri has typically been portrayed as a dignified royal in the comics — sometimes even more regal and self-serious than T’Challa himself. But now that Ta-Nehisi Coates’ latest Black Panther series has sent T’Challa off into space, there’s only one woman who can keep peace in Wakanda — if she can stop meddling with her inventions long enough, that is.

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther film adaptation introduced a lot of new ideas and characterizations into Wakanda. Between Shuri and Marvel’s just-announced Killmonger series, it will be interesting to see how much of those reimaginings can be translated back into the comics.

Pre-order Shuri #1 here.

The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling (Ten Speed Press)
Aubrey Sitterson (writer), Chris Moreno (artist)

“Is everything wrestling?” Jeremy Gordon asked in the headline of a 2016 opinion piece for the New York Times. The two years since those words were published have often seemed to answer that question with a resounding “yes.” Every day, it seems, our culture slides ever more into the blurry synthesis between fiction and reality that defines professional wrestling. After all, Donald Trump is in the White House, which makes him the first-ever President of the United States to also be a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.

This new graphic novel from Sitterson and Moreno offers an engaging and entertaining history of wrestling, from its origins in post-Civil War America to the modern era of John Cena. It provides an introduction to the culture for newcomers and a much-needed lesson for anyone trying to find their footing in our strange new zeitgeist.

Pre-order The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling here.  

HP’s latest convertible laptop is weirder than most.

The Spectre Folio has an unusual chassis, made of leather and magnesium alloy instead of typical aluminum, reminiscent of the fabric surrounding the keyboard on the Microsoft Surface laptop. Starting at $1,299 (for a full HD and i5 CPU), the Spectre Folio is actually cheaper than I expected for something billed as a premium product.

HP worked with Intel to customize the Folio’s processor; it’s an 8th-Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processor with either 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM. Storage starts at a 256GB SSD, but you can upgrade to a 2TB drive. It will be running Windows 10 out of the box and from what I saw, not much bloatware is here.

If you spring for it, the Folio also packs an Intel gigabit LTE chip inside for accessing mobile networks when WiFi isn’t available (provided you get a data plan for the machine, of course). In the U.S., the Folio will work on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. It has both a physical SIM card slot and an e-sim inside, allowing for secure connections abroad. Sprint will offer customers six months of free service with activation on the Spectre Folio. As for why you’d want a data plan for your laptop, HP emphasized privacy, noting that public WiFi networks aren’t the most secure.

In line with previous HP devices, Bang & Olufsen is an exclusive partner for the speakers. Since the design of the Folio is quite thin, the speaker grille lives on top of the keyboard. However, the hardware powering the sound is actually in the hinge. 

HP is promising an impressive 18-hour battery life, but it didn’t opt for a stacked battery design like Apple did for the MacBook. Instead, you have four separate cells in the frame. With three USB-C ports (two of which are Thunderbolt 3) you can charge from any of them. While you can upgrade up to a 4K display, the entry-level Spectre Folio has a Full HD (1080p) monitor. In my brief hands-on with the Folio, I thought the screen looked bright and colors were vibrant.

Design-wise, the Spectre Folio looks really lovely, and definitely has the feel of a notebook — that is, a traditional pen-and-paper notebook. HP will offer the Spectre Folio in either a Bordeaux Burgundy or Cognac Brown at launch. I have a feeling that more color options will arrive in the future.

It looks visually captivating in person, and the company days it’s tested the leather for durability. Leather is on the outside, but it’s molded with a magnesium alloy frame underneath. Pushing out of the leather base is a frame that contains the keyboard that has slight incline too it. Typing on the keys felt pretty good, but the keys don’t travel as deeply as on most notebooks. 

As a convertible, the Folio has four modes, but it’s more like three since HP counts the laptop closed as one of them (what am I supposed to do with that?). You get a traditional laptop form, a tablet mode where the display folds down over the keyboard, and finally a “forward” mode, where the display folds over backward so it’s facing outward (see the tweet above).

The Spectre Folio comes with a proprietary Digital Pen stylus . It will charge via USB-C and can be attached to the side of the laptop with a leather holder.

Case in point, HP is definitely going in a new direction with this design, and I’m eager to see if the Spectre Folio holds up as well as HP says.

HP is kicking off pre-orders today, and the Spectre Folio will be exclusively in Best Buy for in-store availability, beginning on Oct. 29. The LTE and 4K display variants will be launching in the coming months.

Qatar’s sports broadcaster beIN has launched a $1bn compensation claim against Saudi Arabia, accusing it of “breaching international law” in relation to the streaming of sporting events owned by beIN.

Separately on Monday, Qatar launched new proceedings against Saudi Arabia at the World Trade Organization (WTO), accusing the kingdom of intellectual property rights violations.

Both actions were announced in statements, although it is not clear where the compensation claim will be heard.

It is the latest escalation in the ongoing Gulf diplomatic crisis, which began on June 5, 2017, when Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, imposing a sweeping embargo on the gas-rich nation.

The blockading quartet accuses Qatar of having close ties to regional rival Iran and harbouring “terrorist groups” – allegations Doha strongly denies.

Qatar’s economy ministry said in a statement on Monday that its representatives submitted a formal request at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, raising concerns over Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic, political and economic measures against Doha.

“Saudi Arabia’s actions represent not only a violation of Qatar’s trade rights, but also affects the rights of other trading partners,” Qatar’s economy ministry said.

“The new dispute focuses on violations with respect to protection of intellectual property rights in the kingdom,” it added. 

Part of Qatar’s concerns involve the blocking of Qatari broadcaster beIN in Saudi Arabia, the ministry said on its website, and accused Riyadh of refusing to take effective action against the piracy of beIN content in the kingdom.

In addition to the WTO action, beIN said it was being used as a “political football in a wider regional dispute” and announced it would seek more than $1bn from Saudi Arabia over the piracy claims.

“beIN Corporation (beIN), today launched an international investment arbitration against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for damages totalling more than US$1 billion, having been unlawfully driven out of the Saudi market and subjected to what has been described as the most widespread piracy of sports broadcasting that the world has ever seen,” beIN said in a statement.

Saudi officials have not issued any response to the Qatari initiative and statement as yet. 

BeoutQ piracy row

BeoutQ, a 10-channel system broadcasting to the Middle East on the Arabsat satellite operator, is allegedly being broadcast from Saudi Arabia.

BeIN Media Group, a Qatar-based sports network which holds the exclusive rights to broadcast all the major international sports events to the MENA region, has claimed beoutQ is stealing its signal and broadcasting it as its own.

The piracy row between Doha and Riyadh escalated during the FIFA World Cup in Russia earlier in June, when beoutQ illegally distributed the football matches in the Middle East. 

FIFA, football’s governing body, said in July it had engaged counsel to take legal action in Saudi Arabia and urged Saudi authorities to help in “the fight against piracy”. 

Other sports federations also issued similar statements, condemning beoutQ’s pirated coverage in the MENA region.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has denied claims that beoutQ is based in the kingdom, and distanced itself from its operation.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, minister of economy and commerce, said Saudi Arabia’s “failure to comply with its commitments in terms of protecting copyrights, radio and television broadcasting rights, and trademarks” has caused “significant commercial losses for Qatari citizens and entities”.

Qatar first turned to the WTO in August 2017 with a wide-ranging complaint to challenge the trade boycott by the blockading nations. 

The Gulf crisis is now into its second year and mediation efforts led by Gulf neighbour Kuwait, as well as apparent shuttle diplomacy by the United States, have so far failed to end the diplomatic dispute.

Daniel Payne, Opinion contributor
Published 12:57 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2018

Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Brett Kavanaugh leaves questions: What’s in the therapist’s notes? How’d she get home? And why talk to Judge?

The Christine Blasey Ford-Brett Kavanaugh hearing last week was an avalanche of emotion, confusion, uncertainty and frustrating irresolution. Kavanaugh behaved less  than admirably, offering evasive responses at some points and hostile ones at others. And Ford’s testimony, while raw and affecting, left several big unanswered questions. The FBI, in its investigation this week, should try to resolve at least some of them. Failure to do so could deal a serious blow to Ford’s credibility.

1. What’s in the therapist’s notes? Ford’s account of an alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh when they were both teens shifted in several notable ways. At various times she has described it as occurring in the mid-1980s, the 1980s and the early 1980s. In its first bombshell report on the accusations, the Washington Post said that it had acquired “portions of” a therapist’s notes in which Ford detailed the crime; in notes from “an individual therapy session the following year,” Ford makes the claim that the attack happened in her late teens, which in future claims she brought down to 15. The notes also say that “four boys were involved” in the crime, which Ford (who claims only two boys were involved) said was “an error on the therapist’s part.” 

It would be very helpful for the Senate to see the therapist’s notes and compare them to her current claims. Unfortunately, Ford’s lawyers are refusing to release the notes to Congress, calling such a proposal an “unacceptable invasion of privacy.”

Ford said she didn’t remember “physically showing” the Post her copy of the notes. But in its original report, the newspaper said Ford herself provided “portions” of the notes for review. If Ford was willing to give the Post some of the critical notes in some form, why not Congress, or at least the Senate Judiciary Committee?

2. How did Ford get home? Ford’s details of the attack are very specific and clear in some cases, very vague in others. She is 100% certain that it was Kavanaugh who sexually assaulted her, and she remembers other little details — that she only had one beer at the party, for instance — but she cannot remember when the attack took place, or at whose house, or how she got there.

Perhaps most strikingly, Ford claims she does not remember how she got home. She says she ran out of the house after Kavanaugh assaulted her; in her testimony she told the Senate: “I do not remember [how I got home] other than I did not drive home.” 

This is a significant memory lapse. If a friend gave her a ride, he or she might be an important additional witness who could perhaps corroborate some of Ford’s claims. It’s at least possible  a friend would remember picking up Ford outside the party, and there’s a chance Ford might have seemed distraught enough to make the event stick out in the driver’s mind. Alas, no such witness has come forward, and Ford’s memory is blank on the matter.

More: How could Kavanaugh, Ford both seem to be telling the truth? Trauma & alcohol

Kavanaugh vs. Ford testimonies cry out for an investigation before a vote

I was falsely accused and my reputation was disparaged. I don’t regret fighting back.

This raises another, critical question: If her memory has lapsed so significantly, how reliable is her claim that she didn’t drive? If Ford indeed did not have a driver’s license at the time of the assault, as she testified, then a 1982 date does seem likely. But by her own admission her memory of how she got home is incomplete — leaving the year of the assault wide open.

3. Why did Ford talk to Mark Judge after he allegedly participated in an assault on her? Ford said she ran into Judge at a local Safeway around “six to eight weeks” after the attack. Per a book written by Judge, he worked at a grocery store the summer prior to his senior year of 1982-83, which would validate Ford’s claim that the event took place in the summer of 1982. 

According to Ford, she and Judge had been friendly when they occasionally saw each other over the previous two years. But when she ran into Judge at the Safeway and said hello, he was white-faced and “very uncomfortable saying ‘Hello’ back,” Ford said. “I wouldn’t characterize him as not friendly. He was just nervous and not really wanting to speak with me.” 

This is rather astonishing. Ford has said that she was deeply traumatized by the sexual assault; that the “immediate impact” of the event was when it was the worst for her; that the total impact was so strong that decades later it would factor into how she wanted to remodel her house (she requested a second front door because the alleged incident left her with a sense of claustrophobia); that she has experienced “anxiety, phobia and PTSD-like symptoms” due to the assault; and that in general the alleged incident had an immediate, terrible and lasting effect on her life.

If this is true, why would she say hello to Mark Judge? Indeed, leading up to the hearing last week, Ford’s attorneys demanded that she not even appear in the same room as Kavanaugh at the same time; and this is over 30 years after the alleged assault, not “six to eight weeks.”

Speaking from some limited personal experience, I can say that talking to someone who has targeted you for sexual assault is something you avoid at all costs, whether it’s turning around and walking out of the room, walking quickly by your attacker, or finding some other way to get out of his sight as fast as humanly possible. 

I hope the FBI is looking into these questions. Its investigation could yield valuable information for the Senate and the American public. Both deserve answers from everyone involved in this devastating episode.

Daniel Payne is an assistant editor at “The College Fix” and blogs at at TrialoftheCentury.net.

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The brown and tan stucco house on 1735 W. Del Webb Parkway looks just like many of the brown and tan stucco houses lining the senior living community in northwest Reno.

“It’s just so ordinary,” said Barbara Robinson-Ramirez, one of the real estate agents for Realty World-Ballard Co., now tasked with selling the property.

None of the other homes on the street, however, have the same history as this one does. As the former Reno home of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, the Del Webb house sticks out in a nondescript neighborhood that is as vanilla as a residential development can be.

“People still drive by and slow down in front of it,” said Jennifer Guthrie, another Realty World-Ballard Co. real estate agent who oversees open houses for the property.

More: Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s quest for ‘perfect play’ on video poker

The question now is how much interest the house can get, not from curious passersby but from potential buyers. The house has been on the market for a little over 30 days after the courts, which took control of the property following the shooting, asked for it to be put on the market. The house is in a senior development where only people age 55 and older are allowed to own or lease, Guthrie said.

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Survivors of the Oct. 1, 2017, Las Vegas shooting are still struggling to put their lives back together one year later. Chris Gilman of Bonney Lake, Washington, says she still has the urge to look behind her whenever she leaves her home. (Sept. 27)
AP

At Realtor.com, the Paddock house is listed for $374,900, just below Reno’s median price of $396,000. The 1,410-square-foot-house features two bedrooms, two baths and several amenities sought by many homebuyers.

“It has high ceilings, lots of natural lighting, a kitchen breakfast bar and a great view from the front porch,” Guthrie said. “The community also has a clubhouse and indoor pool for residents, who can take exercise classes and dance classes.”

In a hot Reno-Sparks housing market marked by limited supply, a house such as this would typically see strong interest. Robinson-Ramirez says two- and three-bedroom houses have “pretty huge demand.”

More: Paddock casting spotlight on high-limit gambling

At the same time, both Realtors acknowledge that this is not your typical two-bedroom house due to the Paddock connection. At an open house a month ago, most of the people who showed up were neighbors just looking at the property.

Even the house’s listing information is not typical. Stated in its listing’s private remarks — which are not visible to the public — is a note about the sale’s proceeds.The note states that money raised from the sale will benefit the families of the shooting victims.

Robinson-Ramirez and Guthrie hope that knowing the proceeds will benefit victim’s families will help generate interest in the property among potential buyers. Selling the property would also be good for the neighborhood, which seems frozen in time a year since a shooting that occurred more than 400 miles away.

“As long as it stays empty, the history stays the same,” Guthrie said. “If we get a family in there, there would no longer be a reason for (people to drive by in front of the house to just look). The community can move on.”

Related: Vegas shooter Paddock purchased guns at Cabela’s near Reno

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We’re learning more about Stephen Paddock, the “lone wolf” in the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.
USA TODAY

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