Outbreak: Under pressure from the Obama administration the governor of New York is backing off, if only slightly, his quarantine requirement for medical workers returning from West Africa. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says that in some cases he will allow home quarantine.

New York, New Jersey, Florida and Illinois are requiring the 21-day quarantine, even if the medical workers show no signs of disease. New Jersey’s Chris Christie said on Fox News, “We’ve taken this action and I have absolutely no second thoughts about it.” New York’s Andrew Cuomo said, “It’s too serious a situation to leave it to the honor system of compliance.”

Kaci Hickox, the nurse who returned from Sierra Leone only to be slammed into isolation in New Jersey, has kicked up a dust storm. She’s being held despite testing negative for Ebola and she’s hired a civil-rights lawyer to fight for her release.

Medical workers also are worried that the quarantine requirement in these four states will hurt the effort to halt Ebola in Africa by discouraging medical workers from going. CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said, “If we do things that unintentionally make it harder to get that person in, or to get those supplies in, it’s going to become much harder to stop the outbreak at the source.”

Poll-ticks: A Washington Post/ABC News poll says half the country strongly disapproves of the way Congress does its job, and that’s good news for Congress. It’s an improvement in their numbers. Congressional Democrats are taking a beating in public opinion. Sixty-seven percent say the Democrats are doing a lousy job. But if you can believe this, according to the poll, Democrats are still marginally more popular than Republicans.

The Bourbon Opinion: Kentucky’s two most influential newspapers have endorsed Democrat Allison Lundergan Grimes to replace Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. The Courier-Journal in Louisville says McConnell has “lost his way to the point where he now is identified largely as the master of obstruction and gridlock in Washington.”

Benefits: The federal government will now recognize gay marriage in six states where it has recently become legal; Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming. The government will extend federal employee benefits to same-sex spouses in those states.

Ukraine: Pro-Western parties appear to have won a sweeping victory in the Ukraine elections and are preparing to form a coalition government with President Petro Poroshenko. Ukrainians in pro-Russian eastern areas controlled by rebels were not allowed to vote.

Nation: Another high school student has died as a result of injuries suffered in a school shooting north of Seattle last week. Gia Soriano was 14. Two other students are still in the hospital.

>St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras, 22, was killed in a car accident along with his girlfriend in his native Dominican Republic. Taveras was a rising star who hit a homer against San Francisco in the National League playoffs.

The Series: An explosive three-run eighth inning put the San Francisco Giants on the path to a 5-0 win against Kansas City last night, giving them a 3-2 lead in the World Series. San Francisco pitcher Madison Bumgarner threw for all nine innings, causing some sports analysts to say he’s entering the pantheon of some of the game’s greatest pitchers. He’s 25 years old.

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