5 Savage Things

5 Savage Things: Your conversation starter for the week. Meteorologists, financial connoisseurs and fashion Bellwethers provide previews for the days, weeks and months to come - this is your political guide. Wake up Monday morning to fresh and interactive previews for your week in politics.

• 28 days after hurricane Maria reduced Puerto Rico’s functioning power grid to zero, food and water still present a challenge. Sobering news as the current president landed in the US Territory and launched single rolls of paper towels into a standing audience of Americans. Since Irma's landfall on the US Virgin Islands, roughly 85% of the territory is still displaced.

• NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre made the weekday and Sunday morning media rounds to explain backed mild regulations to restrict the now well-known bump stocks. The attachment allows a semi-automatic weapon to fire automatically. LaPierre advises that a review should be conducted by the ATF vice Congress. The lobby group's response was due to the October 1 shooting in Las Vegas in which 58 people were killed and 500+ injured by Stephen Paddock.

• The current administration is seeking to roll back yet another Obama-era protection. Employers will be permitted to opt out of coverage of oral contraceptives based on their moral or religious beliefs. Legal challenges have been filed by several civil rights and women's rights groups in response to the Friday, October 6 announcement.

• Since the resignation of John Thompson in May, former director of the Census Bureau, vacancies and budget starvation of the bureau remains a dimly lit issue. The 2020 census is critical to allocation of funds in communities and the number of congressional seats within each state.

• The push for stronger options to respond to North Korea was made apparent by the current administration according to Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis. Mattis has continued to employ diplomatic efforts while Trump has contrasted with a request for military options quickly.