The Russia Thing: A federal grand jury in Washington has brought the first criminal  charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported last night.

The network said that, according to its sources, the charges are still sealed and the target or targets may be taken into custody as soon as Monday.

What the charges are and who they are against will reveal major clues to the direction of Mueller’s investigation of Russian election-influencing investigation, and how far it has gone.

In the dirt-digging department, the conservative website The Washington Free Beacon, was the first to hire the research firm Fusion GPS to get the goods on Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates, some of which ultimately ended up in the infamous Trump-Russia dossier.

The Hillary Clinton campaign later hired Fusion, which commissioned the reports written by former British spy Christopher Steele.

The significance here is that everyone who rolls gets dirty. President Trump said that the involvement of Democrats in the Russia dossier is “a very sad commentary on politics in this country.”

Now we know the sad commentary covers both parties.

Econ 101: The US economy grew at rate of 3 percent in the third quarter, the fastest since 2014. It was expected that hurricane damage and resulting unemployment would have put a damper on the economy. Speculation is that businesses are spending and investing in anticipation of a big corporate tax cut wending its way through Washington.

The JFK Files: President Trump tweeted last night that, “After strict consultation with General Kelly, The CIA and other Agencies,” he will allow the release of the remaining Kennedy assassination papers, redacting only the names and addresses of people still living. About 2,800 pages were released yesterday, but more were held back for reasons of “national security.” Evidently that’s not a worry anymore. Trump said, “I am doing this for reasons of full disclosure, transparency and in order to put any and all conspiracy theories to rest.”

The papers already released include memos about plots to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, research into the sex lives of the Kennedy clan (nothing interesting), and a stripper named Kitty. Maybe Oliver Stone can make a movie sequel.

Homage to Catalonia: Spain’s autonomous region of Catalonia declared independence yesterday and the Spanish government moved immediately to fire Catalonia’s leaders and dissolve its Parliament.

“We never wanted to reach this situation, never,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on television, while announcing he was taking emergency measures authorized by the Spanish constitution.

Catalonia has a different language and culture from the rest of Spain and it’s had an independent streak for a long time. People celebrated in the streets of Barcelona after the declaration of independence and as of last night, it was unknown whether there would be resistance to the Spanish government crackdown.

Only a Game: The Astros beat the Dodgers 5-3 last night to lead the World Series 2-1.

Mean Grampa: Taking a pre-Halloween visit from the children of White House reporters yesterday, President Trump said, in front of the children, “I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children. How the media did this, I don’t know.”

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