Ebola: Reports this morning say that as many as 80 people may have come into contact with Thomas Duncan, the Ebola virus patient in a Dallas hospital.

As the details of the case emerge, investigators learned that Duncan was initially sent home from an emergency room after telling medical personnel that he was sick and had just come from West Africa where the virus has killed thousands of people. He was given antibiotics and discharged. Still feeling terribly ill, Duncan returned to the hospital and, despite some delay, was properly diagnosed. Duncan is a Liberian citizen in his 40s.

In the Line of Fired: Following embarrassing security breaches, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned as head of the agency that protects the president of the United States. Pierson is a 30 year veteran of the Secret Service who was appointed to straighten up the agency after scandals involving drunk agents and agents cavorting with prostitutes on foreign trips. She is the first woman to run the Secret Service but held the job only 18 months. Joseph Clancy, a retired Secret Service veteran, has been put temporarily in charge. Pierson told a reporter for Bloomberg News, “I can be pretty stoic about all this, but not really. It’s painful to leave.”

Hong Kong: Protesters are threatening to occupy government offices if Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung doesn’t resign by midnight. The pro-Democracy protesters are gathering at government offices and the police have been reported to be stockpiling riot gear.

World: Turkey is considering whether to join the war against ISIS as the terrorist army fights its way close to the border. >Recovery teams in Japan have found the bodies of 47 people killed in the volcanic eruption of Mt. Ontake last Saturday. >Despite a ceasefire agreed to with Russia and Ukraine, pro-Russian rebels have begun another push to take the airport in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Downbeat: A Florida man who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in an argument over loud music at a gas station has been convicted of first-degree murder. Michael Dunn said he was acting in self-defense two years ago when he fired 10 shots into the car in which 17-year-old Jordan Davis was a passenger. Dunn had asked the teenagers to turn the music down and said they became “menacing.” The shooting in November 2012 was one of those cases that put the spotlight on guns and trigger-ready white people. Dunn’s first trial ended with the jury deadlocked.

More with Less: The NY Times announced it is shedding 100 people from its newsroom as financial conditions tighten and the paper has failed to make enough money in the digital world. Editor Dean Baquet said in a letter to the staff, “I will use this as an opportunity to seriously reconsider some of what we do — from the number of sections we produce to the amount we spend on freelance content.” The Times will still have one of the biggest staffs in the newspaper business.

It’s a Girl: For actors Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, the former Mr. Demi Moore.

Social News: Facebook has backtracked and apologized for deleting the accounts of drag queens and transgender people who go by such names as Sister Roma and Lil Miss Hot Mess. It’s been Facebook’s policy to require people to use their real names to avoid fraud and trolling, and to create real targets for advertising, but now they say they are loosening up to let people use “the authentic name they use in real life.” We looked in the phone book for Lil Miss Hot Mess.

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