Midday Roundup: U.S. troops headed to Ebola front line

Boots on the ground. President Barack Obama this morning outlined his plan to send U.S. personnel and resources to fight Ebola in West Africa. The U.S. will send 3,000 military members to the region to provide medical and logistical support—training healthcare workers, setting up hospitals, and coordinating relief efforts. The Senate will host a hearing on the crisis this afternoon. Dr. Kent Brantly, the missionary physician who contracted Ebola in Liberia and survived, is scheduled to testify. The United States has already spent $100 million responding to the outbreak, and the expanded efforts could cost $500 million more.

The war on ISIS. The United States on Sunday and Monday conducted its first airstrikes in direct support of Iraqi troops fighting ISIS. The goal of previous strikes was to protect U.S. personnel and interests. The most recent ones, part of an expanded campaign against ISIS, helped Iraqi soldiers who were fighting militants southwest of Baghdad. The campaign also will support Kurdish troops in Northern Iraq who are beginning an effort to retake the plain of Mosul, an ISIS stronghold. In the city of Mosul, ISIS extremists have ordered schools not to teach art, music, history, literature, or anything having to do with Christianity. But residents are resisting; school was supposed to start Sept. 9, but many students did not show up for class.

Early detection? A new study has linked male pattern baldness and aggressive prostate cancer. Study participants who remembered having the tell-tale receding hairline and thinness on the crown of the head at age 45 were 39 percent more likely to develop a particular type of prostate cancer, according to an article published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Scientists suspect the link has to do with testosterone, which drives both male pattern baldness and prostate cancer incidence.

Sex and the city. Officials in Coshocton, Ohio, are pleading with a pastor and a strip club owner to relent from a long-standing feud. New Beginnings Ministry, led by Pastor Bill Dunfee, for eight years has protested on Friday nights outside the Foxhole North club. This summer, club owner Thomas George decided he had had enough, and sent his employees to protest outside the church on Sunday mornings. One demonstration by topless dancers garnered national attention. Last week, Coshocton County officials sent a letter to both Dunfee and Thomas, asking them to cut it out. They said the protests are draining police resources and making the small town look bad. George said his protests would stop when the church’s did. Dunfee had a longer list of demands that amounted to calling for the club’s employees and patrons come to Christ and develop a biblical attitude toward sex.