The status of veterans. Let’s start the Weekly Watchlist with a check-in on our veterans. On average, veterans in America have a higher employment rate and lower poverty rate than non-veterans, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Beneath the aggregate numbers are significant vulnerabilities: younger veterans, those transitioning from service, those with service‐connected disabilities or trauma, and veteran families with limited savings face elevated risks. On health and mental health: we’ve made progress, but the burdens of trauma, chronic conditions, mental-health disorders and substance use remain real and substantial. Access and seamless transition matter enormously, and there remains much work to do—in particular, for our younger veterans. There are more than 2.5 million post 9/11 military veterans who have served our nation; 80 percent of them spent some time in an overseas combat zone. Their challenges are more acute: Since 2002, more than 200,000 service members have suffered Traumatic Brain Injuries; 22% are diagnosed with a Depressive Disorder; 22 veterans commit suicides daily, with 1 occurring roughly every 80 minutes. But there’s also this: Among post-911 veterans, 94% are proud of their service.

Democrats cave, the shutdown’s coming to an end. I know—it’s infuriating, and I’ll have much more on it later. But: Why did centrist Democrats shut down the government—for nothing? I’m a centrist, but it sure seemed to me like this fight was worth it. What did the 8 senators who bailed out Trump achieve that they could not have achieved weeks ago, when Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) offered the exact deal they voted for last night? In the blink of an eye, those Senate Democrats went from looking like fighters to being revealed as weak, tired, cynical, old pols. And it was so dumb; Thune’s a relatively decent guy, but why would anyone trust the Trump GOP? Anyway—look for the ripple effects of the end of a shutdown, as government systems recover. And look for Trump to blame the shutdown for any economic bad news for years to come, instead of his own mad policies. They’re already at it.

The sports gambling scandal spreads. Now it’s major league baseball. Two current MLB pitchers, Emmanuel Clase (one of the game’s best hurlers right now) and Luis Leandro Ortiz of the Cleveland Guardians, have been indicted for allegedly taking bribes from gamblers to rig pitches in games. The alleged scheme involved throwing certain kinds of pitches (balls instead of strikes, slower speeds) to benefit prop-bets. It’s disgusting and disheartening—and completely unsurprising. I’ve said for years that perhaps the most destructive social change in my lifetime in America has been the mainstreaming and industrializing of gambling. When I was growing up, legalized gambling was exceedingly rare, and we were a nation that taught our kids that there’s no such thing as a fast buck or a free lunch. Now, we are a fast-buck nation, with all the human wreckage, warped ethics, and corruption that always comes with gambling. Expect more indictments in more sports, a lot of handwringing, and more billions for the predatory gambling industrial complex.

Joel Edgerton is worth seeing in anything. Some good news: Joel Edgerton, one of our greatest actors, has a new movie out this week: Train Dreams. It’s based on the novella by Denis Johnson, set in the Pacific Northwest of a century ago, and it’s already getting Oscar buzz. I’d watch Edgerton in anything, and this looks like something special.