Today's five.

The court that Republicans largely built just told Republicans no, 5-4, on mail-in ballot grace periods. The ruling keeps intact state laws that count ballots postmarked by Election Day but arriving up to five days later — laws on the books in Mississippi, California, and more than a dozen other states. Barrett wrote the majority opinion, joined by Roberts and the three liberal justices. NPR and The Hill led with the GOP loss; WHYY led with what it spares officials from: rewriting ballot rules months before the 2026 midterms. The case started in Mississippi, a Republican-led state that never actually wanted to win it.

The Court overturned 91 years of precedent in a 6-3 ruling, giving Trump the power to fire members of independent agencies like the FTC — positions Congress designed specifically to be insulated from presidential whims. Then, in a 5-4 decision the same week, it blocked Trump from firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, with Chief Justice Roberts writing that the Fed's 112-year independence is a "special arrangement sanctioned by history." NPR led with what the president gained. Axios led with what he didn't. The Fed, apparently, is its own category.

A 90-year-old precedent died quietly Monday, and the Federal Reserve was the only agency left standing. The Court overturned *Humphrey's Executor* 6-3, ruling that agency heads exercising significant executive power must be removable by the president at will — meaning Trump can fire FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The Fed got a carve-out: Lisa Cook keeps her seat. Reason led with the constitutional architecture; state outlets led with the two women at the center of it. The ruling essentially asks every independent agency to audition for the same exemption the Fed just received — and most of them won't get it.

On day five of the search, it's Miami-Dade that's still showing up. Eighty members of Florida Task Force 1 landed in La Guaira — one of Venezuela's hardest-hit areas — with six K-9s and what the team called a "deeply personal" mission. Many of the rescuers are Spanish speakers, which matters when you're pulling people from rubble and they need to understand you. The International Rescue Committee's Latin America director has been on the ground coordinating. The official line: the mission is driven by the possibility that a life can still be saved. That's the line you give on day five because you have to believe it.

There's a very specific energy to a lame-duck governor vetoing $1.7 billion in his final budget, and Ron DeSantis has it. He leaves office in January thanks to term limits, but not before striking spending with what Florida Phoenix describes as a "familiar pattern" — the line-item vetoes alone came to $810 million, the rest cut elsewhere. Eight budgets, eight rounds of vetoes. Whatever you think of the man, he's consistent. The interesting question nobody's quite answering yet is whose projects just disappeared three months before a new governor walks in.