Afternoon Sun: The Loan Rangers

Good afternoon. This is the Afternoon Sun newsletter for Oct. 15, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

THE LATEST

Scoop: The Education Department plans to offload its student loans office, working rapidly to stand up a new independent agency that would take over what has long been a core part of the department’s mandate, three sources told The Washington Sun’s Eric Katz.

• Federal law requires the Federal Student Aid office to stay inside the department, which administration officials have repeatedly said they want to eliminate.

• One official said the plan would set a new agency up for failure: “They think they’re just going to do it. Their plan is basically just a cartoon.”

President Donald Trump announced that the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed more than a dozen people in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, will not be livestreamed after all.

THE ADMINISTRATION

Katie Zacharia calls herself a lawyer — but not an attorney — because she failed the California bar exam, the new White House press secretary told The New York Times after a watchdog group filed a complaint.

Donation commitments for Trump’s ballroom included $25 million each from Nvidia, Apple, the Adelson family and billionaire Charles Ergen, according to a list obtained by The Washington Post.

THE HILL

Several congressional offices and election officials received letters containing an “unknown substance.” The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating.

Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi was worshipping at his family’s Hindu temple in Illinois when a man who reportedly espoused white supremacist beliefs attempted to carry out a mass shooting Sunday.

Laura Lytle, former director of the Senate Daily Press Gallery, died Tuesday at age 51.

THE STATES

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent letters to more than 156 data center developments — which have become a prominent issue in multiple Senate races — seeking information about their water usage.

Chris Pappas, the Democratic Senate nominee in New Hampshire, garnered a new and unexpected endorsement: Don Bolduc, the state’s Republican Senate nominee in 2022.

THE COURTS

The DOJ sued California today, alleging election officials sent mail-in ballots to ineligible voters. The department is requesting the court block California from counting the votes of more than 20,000 people the federal government has identified as potential noncitizen voters.

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz faces a federal civil lawsuit accusing him and two others of involvement in a sex trafficking scheme.

Three cities and a legal group asked the Supreme Court to revive a Biden-era immigration rule that allowed judges to close deportation proceedings against people in the process of gaining lawful status, arguing the DOJ and Texas colluded to eliminate it.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from former CIA Director John Brennan meant to compel the DOJ to preserve records related to a criminal investigation into Trump’s political enemies.

• Brennan’s allegations of being targeted because he opposed Trump “are deeply concerning,” Judge Jia Cobb wrote. But even accepting the statements as true, she said, Brennan hadn’t shown that the DOJ was failing to hold onto records that might help his defense against potential criminal charges.

The Trump administration has formally invoked presidential communications privilege to withhold documents and block testimony about the president’s involvement in the Kennedy Center.

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