“SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday emphatically defeated a recall aimed at kicking him out of office early, a contest the Democrat framed as part of a national battle for his party’s values in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and continued threats from ‘Trumpism.’
Newsom bolted to a quick victory boosted by healthy turnout in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. He cast it as a win for science, women’s rights and other liberal issues, and it ensures the nation’s most populous state will remain in Democratic control as a laboratory for progressive policies.
‘‘No’ is not the only thing that was expressed tonight,’ Newsom said. ‘I want to focus on what we said ‘yes’ to as a state: We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic.’
With an estimated two-thirds of ballots counted, ‘no’ on the question of whether to recall Newsom was ahead by a 30-point margin. That lead was built on votes cast by mail and in advance of Tuesday’s in-person balloting, with a strong showing by Democrats. While likely to shrink somewhat in the days ahead as votes cast at polling places are counted, Newsom’s lead couldn’t be overcome.
Republican talk radio host Larry Elder almost certainly would have replaced Newsom had the recall succeeded, an outcome that would have brought a polar opposite political worldview to Sacramento.
The recall turned on Newsom’s approach to the pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates, and Democrats cheered the outcome as evidence voters approve of their approach. The race also was a test of whether opposition to former President Donald Trump and his right-wing politics remains a motivating force for Democrats and independents, as the party looks ahead to midterm elections next year.
Republicans had hoped for proof that frustrations over months of pandemic precautions would drive voters away from Democrats. The GOP won back four U.S. House seats last year, success that Republican leaders had hoped indicated revived signs of life in a state controlled by Democrats for more than a decade.
But a recall election is an imperfect barometer — particularly of national trends. Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-to-1 in California, so the results may not translate to governors in toss-up states or reflect how voters will judge members of Congress next year.
Trump, who had largely stayed out of the contest, made unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged in the closing days, claims echoed by Elder’s campaign. Elder did not mention fraud as he addressed his supporters after the results were in.
‘Let’s be gracious in defeat. We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war,’ he said, later adding that the recall has forced Democrats to focus on issues such as homelessness and California’s high cost of living.” Read more at AP News
“One in 500 Americans have died from coronavirus since the nation's first reported infection. The math is right there: 663,913 US deaths, as of Tuesday night. A US population total of 331.4 million, as of April 2020. While we’re talking numbers, a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates the preventable cost for treating hospitalized, unvaccinated Covid-19 patients was roughly $5.7 billion over the last three months alone. Meanwhile, the government is in the midst of several important vaccine conversations. At a summit next week, President Biden is expected to urge world leaders to collectively commit to vaccinating 70% of the world's population against Covid-19 within a year. And FDA advisers are set to meet Friday to talk booster shots and discuss dueling data over whether they're needed yet.” Read more at CNN
“Senior advisers in the Trump administration in February 2020 privately discussed the government’s ‘critical mistakes ‘in preparing for the coronavirus, countering optimistic claims then-President Donald Trump made in public, according to e-mails obtained by the House select subcommittee on the pandemic.
‘In truth we do not have a clue how many are infected in the USA. We are expecting the first wave to spread in the US within the next 7 days,’ adviser Steven Hatfill wrote to Peter Navarro, the president’s trade director, on Feb. 29, 2020. ‘This will be accompanied by a massive loss of credibility and the Democratic accusations are just now beginning. This must be countered with frank honesty about the situation and decisive direct actions that are being taken and can be seen in the broadcast news.’
Hatfill, a virologist who began advising the Trump White House in February 2020, blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for rolling out flawed coronavirus tests and urged Navarro to begin purchasing additional testing supplies, and to develop alternative ways to immediately screen for virus infections and deploy additional emergency response staff. His warning to Navarro came hours after Trump boasted of his administration’s ‘pretty amazing’ response to the coronavirus.
‘We have 15 people [infected] in this massive country, and because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that,’ Trump said at a political rally in South Carolina, where he charged that Democrats were ‘politicizing the coronavirus . . . this is their new hoax.’
After receiving Hatfill’s message — accompanied by an admonishment that ’from now on, the government must be honest’ — Navarro privately warned Trump in a March 1, 2020, memo that the federal response was ‘NOT fast enough’ and that a ‘very serious public health emergency’ was looming. Trump continued to downplay the virus’s risks in public, assuring Americans the pandemic was being contained and that his government was being ‘totally proactive’ in its response.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Cuba, which developed its own Covid vaccines, will offer shots to 2-year-olds. China and the U.A.E. are vaccinating children as young as 3.” Read more at New York Times
“President Trump's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. This is according to ‘Peril,’ a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa. They write that Milley "was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election" and called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action. The account of Milley’s actions and conversations is based on firsthand details, including a transcript of a call between Milley and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other documents.” Read more at CNN
“As elected officials, we also have an obligation to restore peoples’ faith in our democracy, and I believe that the common sense provisions in this bill — like flexible voter ID requirements — will do just that.”
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin expressing support for Democrats' new voting rights proposal
“Senate Democrats released a new voting rights bill Tuesday that would institute major changes in federal elections, including: mandating same-day voter registration for voters, creating a federal standard for mail-in voting, banning gerrymandering, and making Election Day a public holiday. [NPR / Claudia Grisales]
The bill, dubbed the Freedom to Vote Act, was introduced by Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and is modeled on changes Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) suggested after being the only Democrat to oppose the party’s original voting rights package in June. [NYT / CarlHulse]
Democrats argue new federal voting protections are necessary to safeguard elections from the dozens of restrictive state laws introduced after former President Donald Trump claimed the November 2020 election was stolen.[CNN / Manu Raju]
‘No one can look at these [new state level laws] with a straight face and say they have a legitimate purpose,’ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. ‘They have only one goal ... making it harder for younger, poorer, non-white and typically Democratic voters to access the ballot.’ [USA Today / Sarah Behrmann]
But Senate Republicans don't seem to be budging from their opposition to the voting rights bill, even with the addition of voter ID requirements.[New York Times / Nicholas Fandos]
Schumer has enlisted Manchin to drum up the 10 Republican votes Democrats need to overcome the Senate filibuster. If those efforts fail, many voting advocates would like to see the Democrats break the filibuster rules to pass the law with a simple majority. Manchin and other moderates have said they would not consider such a change, however.” [MSNBC / Steve Bent] Read more at VOX
“The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to grant a temporary restraining order or injunction that would prevent Texas from enacting a law that bans nearly all abortions in the state, heating up a battle between the Biden administration and Texas Republicans, led by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The department argued in a court filing late Tuesday that Texas had adopted the law, known as Senate Bill 8, ‘to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights.’
The move comes less than a week after the Biden administration sued Texas to try to block the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, which bans the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy and allows private citizens to take legal action against anyone who helps a woman terminate her pregnancy.” Read more at Washington Post
“The Justice Department is launching an investigation into civil rights violations in Georgia prisons,focusing on prisoner-on-prisoner violence and the targeting of LGBT inmates by prisoners and staff, federal officials said Tuesday.
The announcement comes after advocacy groups said deplorable conditions of confinement and escalating violence — including homicides and suicides — have only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. It is part of civil rights initiatives by the Justice Department under the Biden administration to reform the nation’s law enforcement agencies and prisons.” Read more at Washington Post
“A trio of key Democrats announced Tuesday they will oppose the party’s plan to lower drug prices, creating a significant roadblock for Democrats’ desired $3.5 trillion tax and spending package.
Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) said they will oppose drug-pricing changes that would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices and that have become the framework to pay for many of Democrats’ sought-after measures this year. The three lawmakers are members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of several panels debating the budget reconciliation package, and say they have concerns about a plan to empower Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies.
The drug-pricing changes are widely regarded as a linchpin to a broader set of health-care changes that Democrats hope to enact, with the savings on federal pharmaceutical spending helping to pay for the rest. The pharmaceutical industry and Republicans have staunchly opposed the drug-price plan, arguing it will hurt the industry’s ability to develop drugs — an argument echoed Tuesday by the Democratic holdouts.” Read more at Washington Post
“Labor shortages are giving low-pay workers a raise—but inflation is eating it up
This should be the best of times for low-wage workers, as pandemic-induced labor shortages lead employers to raise pay. Yet for many, it doesn’t feel that way, in part because those same disruptions have pushed inflation close to its highest rate in over a decade. Overall consumer prices rose 5.3% in August from a year earlier, a slightly slower pace than in June and July but still near a 13-year high, according to the Labor Department.
That means that for the lowest-earning tier of workers, ‘real ‘wages—pay adjusted for inflation—fell 0.5% in August from a year earlier. A gush of spending over the summer collided with pandemic-related shortages and bottlenecks, causing prices for many goods and services to soar. Whether this squeeze on workers’ real incomes persists or reverses depends on the path of both wages and prices.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Gymnastic superstars Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols are set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday on the FBI's failures to investigate 2015 sexual abuse allegations against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. All four gymnasts said they were victims of Nassar's abuse with Nichols being the first athlete to bring a sexual abuse complaint about Nassar to top officials at USA Gymnastics. The Department of Justice Inspector General released a report in July that said the FBI's Indianapolis field office failed to respond ‘with the utmost seriousness and urgency that the allegations deserved and required.’ The field office also failed to alert the proper authorities, the DOJ said.” Read more at USA Today
“'We lost a comedy giant': Norm Macdonald dies of cancer at 61
‘He was most proud of his comedy’: Comedian and former ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member Norm Macdonald died Tuesday after a private battle with cancer. He was 61. Lori Jo Hoekstra, Macdonald's friend and producing partner, told Deadline the comedian had been fighting cancer for nine years, but did not wish to share his health struggles with the public.
Tributes are pouring in: Comedy peers, including Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Seth Rogen and Conan O'Brien and fans took to social media to react to Macdonald's death, remembering the comedian and actor as a ‘legend’ and a ‘comedy giant.’”
Photo: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) defended wearing a dress adorned with the words ‘tax the richt’ o the Met Gala — a move some critics said was out of touch given the event’s lavishness. ‘The message is the medium,’ Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Instagram.” [Guardian / Alexandra Villareal] Read more at VOX
“11.7 million — The estimated number of people that federal stimulus checks lifted above the poverty threshold last year during the pandemic, according to Census Bureau data, a boost that came despite median household income falling nearly 3% from the previous year to around $67,500.
10.6% — The tax increase that households with at least $1 million in income would face in 2023, raising their average federal tax rate to 37.3%, under House Democrats’ plan to help fund investments in healthcare, child care and climate measures.
125,000 — The number of employees Amazon plans to add throughout its U.S. warehouse operations as it prepares for the holiday shopping period.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, its documents show
For the past three years, Facebook has been conducting studies into how its photo-sharing app Instagram affects its millions of young users. Repeatedly, the company’s researchers found that Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of them, most notably teenage girls.
’We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,’ said one slide from 2019, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues. ‘Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,’ said another slide.
In public, Facebook has consistently played down the app’s negative effects on teens, and hasn’t made its research public or available to academics or lawmakers who have asked for it.
In May, Instagram head Adam Mosseri told reporters that research he had seen suggests the app’s effects on teen well-being is likely ‘quite small.’ In a recent interview, Mosseri said: ‘In no way do I mean to diminish these issues.…Some of the issues mentioned in this story aren’t necessarily widespread, but their impact on people may be huge.’ He said the research into the mental-health effects on teens was valuable, and that Facebook employees ask tough questions about the platform.” Read more at Wall Street Journal“Nearly every nation is coming up short — most of them far short — in their efforts to fight climate change, and the world is unlikely to hold warming to the internationally agreed-upon limit, according to a new scientific report.
Only one nation — tiny The Gambia in Africa — is on track to cut emissions and undertake its share of actions to keep the world from exceeding the Paris agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times, the report said.
Only one industrialized nation — the United Kingdom — is even close to doing what it should to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases and finance clean energy for poorer nations, the Climate Action Tracker reported Wednesday.” Read more at AP News
“PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A new chief prosecutor was sworn in Tuesday just hours after his predecessor asked a judge to charge Prime Minister Ariel Henry in the slaying of the president and to bar him from leaving Haiti, a move that could further destabilize a country roiled by turmoil following the assassination and a recent major earthquake.
The request filed by Port-au-Prince prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude, who was fired by Henry, came on the same day that the prosecutor had asked that the prime minister come to a meeting and explain why he spoke twice with a key suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse just hours after the killing.” Read more at AP News
“Iranian security guards are accused of sexually harassing U.N. nuclear inspectors. The alleged incidents at Iran’s main nuclear site, Natanz, included male personnel inappropriately touching several women who worked with the atomic agency and ordering some to remove clothing, diplomats said. Tehran said in response that security at its facilities has been tightened.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The rival Koreas test-launched ballistic missiles hours apart from each other on Wednesday in a display of military assets that came amid a faltering diplomatic push to strip North Korea of its nuclear program.
South Korea’s presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon. It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine flew a previously set distance before hitting a designated target.
The statement said the weapon is expected to help South Korea deter potential external threats, boost its self-defense posture and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The test followed two short-range North Korean ballistic missile launches detected by South Korea’s military earlier Wednesday. On Monday, North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile in its first weapons test in six months.
Experts say the North Korean launches showed it’s pressing ahead with its arms build-up plans while trying to apply pressure on the United States to resume stalled nuclear talks.
It’s not usual for South Korea to publicly disclose high-profile weapons tests that some experts say could provoke North Korea unnecessarily. Observers say Moon’s government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may be responding to criticism that it’s too soft on the North.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Three former U.S. intelligence and military officials have admitted providing sophisticated computer hacking technology to the United Arab Emirates and agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million to resolve criminal charges in an agreement that the Justice Department described Tuesday as the first of its kind.
The defendants — Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke — are accused of working as senior managers at a UAE-based company that conducted hacking operations on behalf of the government. Prosecutors say the men provided hacking and intelligence-gathering systems that were used to break into computers in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
The Justice Department alleges that the men committed computer fraud and violated export control laws by providing defense services without the required license. The case also appears to be part of a growing trend highlighted earlier this year by the CIA of foreign governments hiring former U.S. intelligence operatives to bolster their own spycraft — a practice officials have said risks exposing U.S. secrets.” Read more at AP News
“PARIS (AP) — Health care workers in France face suspension from their jobs starting Wednesday if they haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19. With about 300,000 workers still not vaccinated, some hospitals fear staff shortages will add to their strain.
Vaccines are now compulsory for medical care, home care and emergency workers in France, and Wednesday is the deadline for such staff to have had at least one shot. Failing that, they face having pay suspended or not being able to work. But a top court has forbidden staff to be fired outright.
The mandate was approved by France’s parliament over the summer, after the government insisted that the measure was needed to protect patients and the public from new surges of COVID-19. More than 113,000 people with the virus have died in France, and health authorities say most of those hospitalized in the most recent surge weren’t vaccinated.” Read more at AP News
“Making variants | The world’s worst HIV epidemic is complicating South Africa’s Covid fight, raising the risk of variants spreading across the globe. Rene Vollgraaff, Antony Sguazzin and Amogelang Mbatha write that getting the country’s 8.2 million, mostly poor and marginalized HIV-infected people vaccinated has become critical because scientists say they can harbor the coronavirus for longer, allowing it to mutate.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Lives Lived: Kaycee Moore made only a handful of movies, but they had an outsize effect on American cinema, documenting Black American life in the 1970s and ’80s. She died at 77.” Read more at New York Times
“Apple CEO Tim Cook today unveiled the iPhone 13 — plus new models of the iPad and Apple Watch, which now features a larger display, Axios chief tech correspondent Ina Fried reports.
Between the lines: It was a day of modest updates.
Highlights from the virtual event from Apple Park in Cupertino, California:
The iPhone 13, out Sept. 24, features a new ‘cinematic mode’ that allows for something akin to portrait mode in videos.
The iPhone 13 Pro line builds on the new chip and design of the iPhone 13, but adds a 3x zoom lens and larger battery. The Pro line comes in graphite, gold, silver and a new ‘Sierra blue.’
Apple Watch Series 7 has larger displays, thinner borders and more rounded corners. It will start at $399 and debut ‘later this fall.’” Read more at Axios