The Full Belmonte, 11/13/22
Democrats seal control of Senate after Cortez Masto defeats Laxalt in Nevada: live updates
“Democrats will keep control of the U.S. Senate after Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto — once considered the most vulnerable Democratic senator in the midterms — fended off a challenge from Republican Adam Laxalt after days of vote counting.
The nation's first Latina senator, Cortez Masto was targeted by national Republicans as their best chance to flip a seat. And because Democrats only control the 50-50 Senate because of Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking votes, Republicans only needed a net gain of one seat to reach their goal.
But with her seat secured, Democrats are guaranteed control of Congress' upper chamber no matter the outcome of a Dec. 6 run-off in Georgia between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker,.
Kelly wins Arizona: It's still too early to call races for governor (between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs) but Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly was declared the winner in the Senate race against Republican Blake Masters.
House tilting red, but... A number of House races, including several in California, remain uncalled, as of Saturday morning. Analysts are projecting the GOP to capture the House with a narrower-than-expected margin but Democrats still are given an outside chance of retaining the chamber.
Trump is on the defensive: GOP failures in the midterms have dented former President Donald Trump's aura of inevitability, while GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis' blockbuster reelection win in Florida is fueling speculation he may challenge Trump for the 2024 nomination.
Here are the latest developments:
'A good day for America':Biden hails midterms even as key races, control of Congress remain undecided
Biden: Focus is now on Georgia
President Biden told reporters Democrats' focus is now on the Georgia runoff on Dec. 6 between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
‘I'm not surprised by this,’ Biden told reporters, according to a White House pool report. ‘I think it's a reflection of the quality of our candidates.’
‘It’s always better at 51’ because then Democrats don’t need to have an even makeup of committees, he said. Having 51 seats in the Senate rather than 50 is ‘just simply better,’ according to the pool report.
‘Republicans are going to have to decide who they are,’ Biden added.
-- Luciana Lopez
Aguilar defeats election denier Marchant for Nevada secretary of state
Democrat Cisco Aguilar has defeated Republican election denier Jim Marchant for Nevada secretary of state, dealing the latest blow to former President Donald Trump's ‘Big Lie’ campaign.
The Associated Press called the race after Nevada's population center Clark County, home to 1.3 million active registered voters, released its final batch of results from 23,300 mail-in ballots.
With about 97% of the vote reported Saturday night, Aguilar won by two percentage points, 48.9% to 46.8% — or roughly 20,000 votes.
The race between Marchant and Aguilar put the future of Nevada's elections was on the ballot at a time when the hard-right wing of the GOP has sowed deep distrust in the electoral process.” Read more at USA Today
'Shock and disbelief': World War II bomber, smaller plane collide and crash at Dallas air show
“Two World War II-era planes crashed to the ground in Texas after colliding Saturday while flying over a Dallas air show, federal authorities confirmed.
Bystander videos of the incident posted online appear to show a small fighter plane clipping a slower-flying B-17 bomber at the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show. The collision caused an explosion as planes fell to the ground, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.
It is unknown how many people were on the aircraft, according to a Federal Aviation Administration statement. It's also unclear if anyone on the ground was hurt.
‘Currently we do not have information on the status of the flight crews as emergency responders are working the accident,’ Leah Block, vice president of marketing for Commemorative Air Force, told USA TODAY in an emailed statement.
Emergency crews raced to the crash scene at the Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles from the city's downtown.
Anthony Montoya saw the two planes collide.
‘I just stood there. I was in complete shock and disbelief,’ said Montoya, 27, who attended the air show with a friend. ‘Everybody around was gasping. Everybody was bursting into tears. Everybody was in shock.’” Read more at USA Today
Customs and Border Protection chief Chris Magnus resigns post days after election, White House says
“The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has resigned from his job leading the nation’s largest law enforcement agency as agents encounter record numbers of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico.
Chris Magnus submitted his resignation to President Joe Biden on Saturday, saying it had been ‘a privilege and honor’ to be part of the administration.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden had accepted Magnus’ resignation. ‘President Biden appreciates Commissioner Magnus’ nearly forty years of service and the contributions he made to police reform during his tenure as police chief in three U.S. cities,’ she said.
Magnus’s removal is part of a larger shakeup expected at Homeland Security as it struggles to manage migrants coming from a wider range of countries, including Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. This comes as Republicans are likely to take control of the House in January and are expected to launch investigations into the border.
Migrants were stopped 2.38 million times at the Mexican border in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up 37% from the year before. The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency, in 2019.
The Los Angeles Times was first to report on the ultimatum. In a statement to the newspaper, Magnus said he was asked by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to step down or be fired.
Two people who were briefed on the matter told The Associated Press on Friday that Magnus was told to resign or be fired less than a year after he was confirmed. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to address the matter publicly.” Read more at USA Today
Section of destroyed shuttle Challenger found on ocean floor
“CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A large section of the destroyed space shuttle Challenger has been found buried in sand at the bottom of the Atlantic, more than three decades after the tragedy that killed a schoolteacher and six others.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center announced the discovery Thursday.
‘Of course, the emotions come back, right?’ said Michael Ciannilli, a NASA manager who confirmed the remnant’s authenticity. When he saw the underwater video footage, ‘My heart skipped a beat, I must say, and it brought me right back to 1986 ... and what we all went through as a nation.’
It’s one of the biggest pieces of Challenger found in the decades since the accident, according to Ciannilli, and the first remnant to be discovered since two fragments from the left wing washed ashore in 1996.
Divers for a TV documentary first spotted the piece in March while looking for wreckage of a World War II plane. NASA verified through video a few months ago that the piece was part of the shuttle that broke apart shortly after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. All seven on board were killed, including the first schoolteacher bound for space, Christa McAuliffe.” Read more at AP News
Man who inspired 'The Terminal' dies at Paris airport where he lived for nearly 2 decades
“The Iranian man who inspired the Steven Spielberg film "The Terminal” died in Paris' Charles-de-Gaulle airport after living there for almost two decades, French officials said.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, a political refugee, died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F, Paris airport authority officials reported.
Police and a medical team treated Nasseri but were not able to save him, an airport spokesperson told Agence France-Presse news agency.
Nasseri died shortly before noon, the outlet reported. He was 77.
Nasseri, who the Guardian reported called himself ‘Sir Alfred,’ got caught in an immigration trap in the late 80s – unable to enter France. Born in 1945, Nasseri, lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal limbo because he lacked residency papers then later by choice, USA TODAY archives show.
USA TODAY reported in 2004 that Nasseri showed up at the Paris airport in 1988 with a ticket to London but no identity papers; he said they had been stolen in a Paris subway. He flew to England, but authorities sent him back to de Gaulle, where he remained in legal limbo — living off food vouchers donated by sympathetic airport employees, snoozing on a bench near the Paris Bye Bye departure lounge and becoming the star of French documentary films until he received a French residency permit in 1999.
Though an airport spokeswoman at the time confirmed Nasseri has been free to come and go since 1999, he chose to stay put.
He received a rumored $250,000 from DreamWorks for his story. In June 2004, he told a reporter from Premiere magazine, ‘I have a better image now that the film is coming out. But my lifestyle is the same. I'm happy. This is my dream world.’” Read more at USA Today
Patrick Haggerty, ‘Lost Pioneer’ of Gay Country Music, Dies at 78
In 1973, he put out a little-noticed album of songs about same-sex love and social protest. Forty-one years later, he became an unlikely star.
“Patrick Haggerty, who in 1973 released an album of country songs about same-sex romance that sold only 1,000 copies and seemed destined for eternal obscurity until, four decades later, its rediscovery brought him renown as the first openly gay country singer, died on Oct. 31 at his home in Bremerton, Wash. He was 78.
The death was confirmed by his husband, Julius Broughton. He said Mr. Haggerty had suffered a stroke on a flight to Seattle on Sept. 30 after a show in Oakland, Calif.
The country music of Mr. Haggerty’s youth hardly acknowledged the existence of homosexuality, and when it did, the references were oblique and mocking. Billy Briggs’s ‘The Sissy Song,’ released in 1951, proposed killing oneself as the adequate response to such unmanly habits as wearing the ‘pretty suede shoes that a lot of those sissies buy’ and eating salad.
A concatenation of many things gave Mr. Haggerty the unusual — he frequently called it ‘absurd’ — inclination to make gay country music.” Read more at New York Times
Serena Williams, Dr. Fauci mark their ends of eras at National Portrait Gallery honors
“WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci, who became a household name for his public health work during the COVID-19 pandemic, hasn't had much time over the past few years to consider his legacy.
Others, like the National Portrait Gallery, are doing it for him.
‘Legacies will be determined by how others view your performance,’ Fauci tells USA TODAY. ‘As a person of science and as a physician, I generally don't think in terms of myself and legacy – it's more about responsibility and what you do. … But the very fact that some people felt it was important enough to have a portrait of me … is really very humbling.’
Fauci, who is slated to step down from government service next month, was one of seven honorees Saturday night at the National Portrait Gallery's Portrait of a Nation gala, recognized with new portraits now hanging in the museum to honor the significant contributions they've made to U.S. history. Rounding out the class of 2022 were chef José Andrés, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, activist Marian Wright Edelman, music executive Clive Davis, and tennis icons Serena Williams and Venus Williams.” Read more at USA Today