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Peltola defeats Palin in Alaska House race

Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) was projected to win the race for Alaska’s at-large congressional district, delivering her a full term after she won a competitive special election this summer following the death of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

Peltola, a former state representative, beat former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R); Nick Begich (R), the former co-chairman for Young’s 2020 reelection campaign; and libertarian Chris Bye to hold the seat. She defeated the pair over the summer to finish Young’s term in an unexpected victory that flipped the Last Frontier’s long-time GOP-held seat blue for the first time in decades.

Peltola earned 136,839 votes to Palin’s 112,255, Alaska’s Division of Elections headquarters reported Wednesday evening.

Begich was eliminated after winning just 64,392 votes, which under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system were then transferred to Peltola or Palin based on voter’s next choices.

Peltola tweeted “WE DID IT!!!” along with an animated video of crabs dancing after the results were released Wednesday night.

This cycle was the first time Alaska utilized a new ranked-choice voting system.

Peltola’s special election victory this summer made her the first Alaska native to win a congressional race and the first woman to represent Alaska in the House. She was recommended to serve on the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Education and Labor in her first months in Congress.

In late October, shortly before Election Day, two of Young’s children and one of his former staffers endorsed Peltola in the race for a full term following the late congressman’s death.

“My father believed in Alaska and Alaskan people, and Mary Peltola is going to carry on that legacy,” Dawn Vallely, one of Young’s two daughters, said in an ad the trio cut in support of Peltola.

In the final stretch of the campaign, both Palin and Begich urged voters to “rank the red,” a rallying cry touted by the Republican Party that encourages Alaskans to rank the two Republicans first in the state’s new voting system.

That effort, however, was not enough to shake support from Peltola, who is headed back to the Capitol for a full two years.

Peltola’s victory marks another loss for Palin, who sought a political comeback with the Alaska House race. In 2008, she joined then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on the GOP presidential ticket as his running mate. In 2009, Palin resigned from the Alaska governorship.

Updated: 8:47 p.m.

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Murkowski defeats Trump-backed challenger in Alaska Senate race

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is projected to win her bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate, defeating fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka.

The Associated Press called the race just after 8 p.m.

Murkowski won with the state’s new ranked choice voting system after neither she nor Tshibaka secured more than half of first-choice votes, according to the AP. In the second round, the incumbent took the win with 53.7 percent of the vote, to Tshibaka’s 46.3 percent.

Murkowski, who has served in the upper chamber since 2002, drew the ire of former President Trump after voting to convict him in his second impeachment trial.

Trump subsequently backed Tschibaka in a high-profile effort to oust the incumbent, whom he has called “worse than a Democrat.”

The results of the race took weeks to announce due to Alaska’s newly introduced ranked choice voting system, in which voters rank their candidates by preference.

Under the new system, a candidate wins outright in the first round of voting if he or she gets over 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate meets that threshold, a second round takes place, in which the candidate that received the fewest votes is eliminated, and the votes of those who voted for the eliminated candidate are redistributed to voters’ next choice for the seat.

The process continues until one candidate breaks 50 percent of the vote.

The new system allowed both Murkowski and Tshibaka to be on the midterm ballot, even though they’re both Republican contenders.

The other candidate in the ring was Democrat Pat Chesbro. A fourth candidate, Republican Buzz Kelley, was on the ballot despite having suspended his campaign to endorse Tshibaka.

Updated at 8:38 p.m.

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Arizona's GOP governor congratulates Hobbs on victory as Lake refuses to concede

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on Wednesday congratulated Katie Hobbs (D) on her victory to succeed him after Republican nominee Kari Lake declined to concede the race.

Hobbs was declared the winner of the high-profile gubernatorial race last week, and Ducey on Wednesday met with her and offered his full support to begin the transition amid GOP allegations of voter disenfranchisement. 

“Today I congratulated Governor-elect Katie Hobbs on her victory in a hard-fought race and offered my full cooperation as she prepares to assume the leadership of the State of Arizona,” Ducey said in a statement.

“My administration will work to make this transition as smooth and seamless as possible,” he added. “Our duty is to ensure that Arizona’s 24th Governor and her team can hit the ground running and continue our state’s incredible momentum.”

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Lake, an ally of former President Trump, has declined to concede the race despite Hobbs leading her by about 17,000 votes, a margin above the threshold that triggers an automatic recount.

Prior to the election, the Arizona Republican declined to say she would accept the results of the race on multiple occasions.

Ducey in 2020 had drawn Trump’s ire after refusing to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.

“All of us have waited patiently for the democratic process to play out,” Ducey said. “The people of Arizona have spoken, their votes have been counted and we respect their decision. No matter who we voted for, all of us have a stake in Arizona’s success. Our future is bright and boundless. Let us never forget that as we begin this next chapter in our state’s history.”

Lake and others have taken aim in particular at printer malfunctions on Election Day in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous jurisdiction that spans the Phoenix area.

County election officials acknowledged 70 vote centers experienced the printer issues but insist that affected residents still had multiple ways to cast a ballot. They said the issue affected 7 percent of Election Day voters.

But Lake has posted a series of videos from Maricopa voters who raised concerns about the voting process. Many of those voters, however, did not assert that they were ultimately denied an opportunity to cast a ballot.

The Republican National Committee joined Arizona’s attorney general nominee in contesting the results of his race in a lawsuit on Tuesday evening, although that contest is separated by a far smaller margin of just 510 votes.

Source: TEST FEED1

Senate Democrats call for criminal investigation of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried 

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday calling for a criminal investigation of what they called the “fraudulent tactics” of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX Trading Ltd., which filed for bankruptcy this month.  

“Given the department’s commitment to holding perpetrators of white-collar crime personally accountable, we expect DOJ to investigate the actions leading to the collapse of FTX with the utmost scrutiny,” the senators wrote in a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The collapse of FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which was once valued at $32 billion, leaves investors facing as much as $8 billion in losses.  

The senators pointed out that in the days leading up to FTX’s collapse, Bankman-Fried tweeted that the exchange “has enough to cover all client holdings” and asserted “we don’t invest client assets (even in treasuries).” 

Bankman-Fried later admitted that an affiliated trading platform that he also founded, Alameda Research, owed FTX approximately $10 billion in customer deposits that were lent without customers’ consent, which Warner and Whitehouse called “a violation of both U.S. securities laws and FTX’s own terms of service.” 

“The fall of FTX was not simply a result of sloppy business and management practices, but rather appears to have been caused by intentional and fraudulent tactics employed by Mr. Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives to enrich themselves,” the senators wrote in the letter addressed to Garland and Kenneth Polite, the assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ’s civil division.

Warren is a member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Whitehouse sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

They argue that Bankman-Fried “revealed his true interests of self-enrichment last year when he siphoned $300 million to his own wallet,” citing a Wall Street Journal report.  

The Journal reported that “it couldn’t be determined” what Bankman-Fried did with the $300 million, but Reuters reported on Tuesday that Bankman-Fried, his parents and senior executives at FTX bought at least 19 properties worth $121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years.

The Democratic senators also pointed out that John Jay Ray, the corporate turnaround specialist who has taken over as FTX’s CEO, reported in a recent court filing that he had never seen “such a complete failure of corporate control” at the exchange and described the use of software to conceal the misuse of customers’ funds.  

“New facts will undoubtedly shed more light on how Bankman-Fried and his associates’ deception has harmed FTX’s customers, and customers of any company that was exposed to the contagion,” the senators wrote. “We urge the Department to center these ‘flesh-and-blood victims’ as it investigates, and, if it deems necessary, prosecute the individuals responsible for their harm.”  

Source: TEST FEED1

Republican House majority climbs to 220 with win in California

Republicans’ House majority in the next Congress climbed to 220 on Tuesday, when Republican Kevin Kiley defeated his Democratic opponent, Kermit Jones, in the tight race for California’s 3rd Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race for Kiley on Tuesday afternoon, two weeks after voters headed to the polls to cast their ballots in the eastern California district. Kiley, a California State Assembly member, won with 53 percent of the vote.

Kiley’s win brings Republicans’ House majority to 220, while Democrats currently hold 212 seats. Three races are still uncalled by the AP: California’s 13th District, Alaska’s at-large district and Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R) Colorado district.

While the AP has not called Boebert’s race, which appears headed for a recount with Boebert holding a slight edge, her Democratic challenger Adam Frisch conceded on Friday, saying he believed the outcome of the election was unlikely to change.

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Alaska’s at-large district appears likely to be called on Wednesday night, when the state’s elections division reveals the final unofficial results of the latest round under its ranked-choice system. Rep. Mary Peltola (D) is expected to hold onto the seat she nabbed in August’s special election to finish out the late Rep. Don Young’s term in Congress.

Peltola currently has a substantial lead over her two Republican opponents, Sarah Palin and Nick Begich. However, Alaska’s fairly recent switch to a ranked choice election system leaves the race up in the air until the final results come in.

If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote in the ranked choice system, the candidate with the lowest number of votes gets eliminated, and voters’ ballots are redistributed to their second choice.

In the August primary, many Palin and Begich voters picked Peltola as their second choice over the other Republican. If a similar dynamic plays out, it could once again hand the Democrat the seat, even though the two Republican candidates had more votes combined.

In California’s 13th District, Republican John Duarte is currently leading his Democratic opponent, Adam Gray, by fewer than 600 votes with 99 percent of the vote in.

If the three final districts go the way they are currently leaning, Republicans would control 222 seats, while Democrats would hold 213 seats. This would be the mirror image of the slim House majority that Democrats obtained in the 2020 election.

Source: TEST FEED1

Accountant testifies Trump reported significant tax losses for a decade

An accountant for former President Trump has testified that the former president reported major losses on his tax returns every year for a decade, including a $700 million loss in 2009. 

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Donald Bender, who has served as Trump’s accountant and prepared Trump’s personal tax returns for years, testified in the criminal tax fraud trial against the Trump Organization that Trump lost money in every year from 2009 to 2018. 

The losses include net operating losses from some of the businesses he owns through the Trump Organization. 

“There are losses for all these years,” Bender said. 

Bender was granted immunity to testify at the trial. 

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The Trump Organization is facing dual probes from the Manhattan district attorney and New York attorney general’s offices over potential financial misdeeds. 

In Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) criminal probe, in which Bender testified, the Trump Organization has been charged with helping top executives avoid paying income taxes on the compensation they received on top of their salaries. 

Former CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 charges he faced for tax evasion in August. But has said that he came up with the plan alone, without Trump or his family knowing, the AP reported. 

Bender’s testimony came on the same day that the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Trump to prevent the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining his tax returns. House Democrats and Trump have been engaged in a battle over obtaining the returns for years. 

Trump refused to publicly release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential election, as is normal for most major presidential candidates, saying that he was under audit. But IRS regulations do not prevent someone from releasing their returns while under audit. 

House Democrats have said they need to investigate how the IRS conducts routine presidential audits, while Trump’s lawyers have denounced their attempts as politically motivated. 

Despite the legal victory for the committee, they might not have much time to review the documents, as Republicans will retake the majority in the House in January and are likely to withdraw the committee’s request to review the materials. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is pursuing a civil suit against the Trump Organization, alleging that Trump inflated property values when working with potential investors and deflated them on federal tax forms.

Trump ripped the high court’s ruling, calling it “unprecedented” and saying the institution “has become nothing more than a political body.”

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Trump rips Supreme Court after ruling he hand over tax records

Former President Trump on Wednesday ripped the Supreme Court after it rejected his emergency appeal seeking to shield his tax returns from House Democrats.

The court’s order on Tuesday caps a multiyear legal battle, paving the way for the House Ways and Means Committee to receive the former president’s tax returns.

“Why would anybody be surprised that the Supreme Court has ruled against me, they always do!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is unprecedented to be handing over Tax Returns, & it creates terrible precedent for future Presidents. Has Joe Biden paid taxes on all of the money he made illegally from Hunter & beyond.”

Trump bucked the tradition of publicly sharing his tax returns during his 2016 presidential campaign, citing an audit. 

House Democrats have sought the records by arguing they need to probe how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) conducts its routine presidential audits. Trump’s attorneys have pushed back on the request as a purely partisan effort.

“The Supreme Court has lost its honor, prestige, and standing, & has become nothing more than a political body, with our Country paying the price,” Trump wrote on Wednesday. “They refused to even look at the Election Hoax of 2020. Shame on them!”

The Supreme Court, which includes three justices nominated by Trump, in 2020 had rejected bids to overturn President Biden’s election win.

That December, justices rejected a bid led by Texas, which was supported by 126 House Republicans and 18 GOP state attorneys general, to nullify Biden’s wins in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The same week, the justices tossed a request from Pennsylvania Republican to nullify Biden’s victory there, which was certified after Biden won the state by more than 81,000 votes.

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The Hill's Morning Report — House to get Trump tax files, high court rules

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

It took three years of legal wrangling, but the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the House Ways and Means Committee can obtain copies of former President Trump’s tax returns from the executive branch (The Hill). 

The high court, without comment, rejected Trump’s plea that justices prevent the Treasury Department from handing over six years of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses to the Democratic-controlled committee. The Biden administration said federal law is clear that the committee has the right to examine any taxpayer’s return, including a president’s or former president’s. 

Trump in 2016 refused to make his tax returns public, breaking with modern examples of transparency set by presidential candidates and presidents. His frequent public assurances during his campaign and in the White House were that he was “under routine audit” and would release his tax returns when an IRS examination was “complete.”

Trump, during a May 2016 interview with The Associated Press, added a frequent dismissal, raised during his first campaign.

“There’s nothing to learn from them,” he said.

Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who requested the files, said in a statement that the panel would “now conduct the oversight that we’ve sought for the last three and a half years” (The New York Times).

Neal did not say whether the committee would publish the returns. A committee aide told the Times that no decision would be made until lawmakers received the files. The Times reported two years ago that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency and another $750 during his first year in the White House.

The former president’s lawyers have argued the committee’s request lacked a valid legislative purpose and was a politically motivated abuse of power. The panel will be under Republican control in January and Trump is again a presidential candidate. The Supreme Court did not include any legal reasoning for its Tuesday ruling.

The former president’s various legal troubles and multiple investigations have encouraged members of his party to cast their eyes toward other potential 2024 GOP nominees, despite Trump’s fervent grassroots base of supporters.

A roundup of recent implicit and explicit jabs at Trump have come from former Vice President Mike Pence (whose campaign staff is taking shape), former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie, former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, reports The Hill’s Brett Samuels. 

Republican Party elites, including some in Congress, took the measure of GOP voters in 2022 and now openly suggest the party is ready for a fresh 2024 White House contender who may be younger, less encumbered by controversy and more identified with conservative governance than personality. 

The Hill’s Niall Stanage, in his latest Memo, explores whether the GOP presidential nomination will wind up a two-horse race between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

▪ The Hill: DeSantis, 44, faces hurdles despite his political momentum as a possible 2024 GOP presidential contender. 

▪ The New York Times: A federal appeals court on Tuesday appeared ready to end a special master review in the government’s probe of Trump’s possession of federal and national security documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago. 

▪ The New York Times: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally, on Tuesday was forced to testify before a Georgia special grand jury investigating 2020 election interference by Trump and his advisers. Graham fought the subpoena for months all the way to the Supreme Court.

▪ CBS News and The Wall Street Journal: Trump attorney Alina Habba said Tuesday during a hearing that Trump family members may appear during next year’s New York civil fraud trial involving the Trump Organization — “all of them.” She added that the former president might testify in his own defense.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: President Biden on Tuesday extended until June the existing federal pause for student loan debt repayments.

▪ CNN’s Ron Brownstein dives deep into election data to analyze how fewer states than ever could pick the next president. A White House winner could be decided by a few hundred thousand voters in states such as Nevada, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona.

▪ The Hill: Biden on Tuesday telephoned an Army veteran whose quick reaction at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday was credited with subduing a gunman accused of killing five people. The White House called Richard Fierro and club patron Thomas James, who also intervened, “heroes.”

▪ The Washington Post Fact Checker: Dissecting GOP claims about Hunter Biden business deals allegedly involving his father.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is expected to win her reelection bid today, said during an interview that the Supreme Court’s abortion decision in June hurt Republicans in the midterms (Anchorage Daily News).

“I think the Republican Party, or certainly Republicans in Congress, are looking at the midterms now in the rearview mirror and saying ‘All right, it was not the red wave that some believed it to be. And since it was not, why not?’” Murkowski said. “Republicans nationally didn’t see a lot of support from [the] younger generation. Okay, why is that?”

“I think we’re going to see very clearly that the support from women more broadly was not what we want it to be as a party,” the senator continued. “I attribute that to the Dobbs decision.”

Alaska’s constitution supports abortion rights and Murkowski introduced federal legislation in February to codify Roe v. Wade, calling the measure “a priority” for Congress.

Murkowski’s expected win follows a lengthy and convoluted election process that will finally see her and Rep. Mary Peltola (D) emerge from their general election battles, writes The Hill’s Al Weaver. 

Alaska’s new ranked choice voting system — which resulted in Murkowski running against Trump-endorsed fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka — turned the election into a proxy war between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Trump, respectively, with Murkowski becoming the key benefactor from the convoluted system.

“People are starting to look nationally and say ‘this could be the answer.’ I think they need to be cautious about that. … It’s very confusing,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who described the queries he received at his booth during the Alaska State Fair in Anchorage shortly after the August primary, told The Hill. “95 percent of the people talking to me about our new ranked choice voting system were saying how utterly confusing it was.”

▪ NPR: The next round of counting begins in Alaska. Here’s how ranked-choice voting works.

▪ KTOO: What to expect from the instant runoff part of Alaska’s first ranked choice election.

Speaking in El Paso, Texas, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that GOP lawmakers will consider impeachment next year if he does not depart.

“If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate. Every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy said at a press conference.

McCarthy criticized the number of border crossings this year, the secretary’s assertions to Congress that the southern border is under control and the Biden administration’s decision to end Trump’s “remain in Mexico” asylum policy. 

The minority leader — who was nominated by GOP colleagues last week to be House Speaker — is working to gather sufficient support from critics in his caucus to be elected to the role by the full House on Jan. 3 (The Hill).

With their slim majority next year, House Republicans would need to round up enough votes to impeach Mayorkas. Legislation to do that — sponsored by McCarthy critic Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — has just 32 cosponsors, although more Republican lawmakers will likely sign on to the effort in the new year. 

▪ Time: The NeverKevins can still block McCarthy’s bid for Speaker.

▪ Forbes: Here are all the Republicans opposing McCarthy’s bid for House Speaker — and what it means for the next Congress.

▪ The Hill: McCarthy’s planned expulsions of Intel Democrats prompts howls.

▪ NBC News: Democrats slam McCarthy over his vow to remove them from committees.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL   

Voluntary evacuations from liberated Kherson have begun in Ukraine as winter approaches. As many as 3 million Ukrainians are expected to leave their homes this winter, officials from the World Health Organization said, as the government began helping evacuate areas where it says it cannot guarantee sufficient power and heat.

Evacuations began as Russia’s increased assaults on Ukrainian infrastructure have raised fears about staying warm and obtaining basic necessities while rolling blackouts, water cuts and heating disruptions become the new normal (The New York Times and Reuters).

In Jerusalem, two blasts on Wednesday went off near bus stops at the height of morning rush hour, killing one person and injuring at least 18, in what police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians (Reuters).

In China, hundreds of workers at a Foxconn iPhone plant were seen violently protesting, according to video. They complained of delayed pay and insufficient food (Reuters). Employees in the central city of Zhengzhou were beaten and detained over contract disputes amid unrest that includes strict anti-virus controls, according to witnesses and videos on social media Wednesday (The Associated Press).

In West Java, Indonesia, the death toll from the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck on Monday now exceeds 250, officials report. Many of the victims were children who died while in school and the earthquake has left more than 1,000 people injured and 58,000 displaced.

“On behalf of myself and on behalf of the government, I would like to express my deep condolences to the victims and their families in this Cianjur earthquake,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said after visiting survivors in shelters. “My instruction is to prioritize evacuating victims that are still trapped under rubble.”

Rescue efforts have been hampered by the destruction — including blocked roads and damaged bridges (Sky News and Reuters).

▪ Reuters: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, voted out, challenges election results.

▪ The New York Times: Buffeted by economic woes, the United Kingdom starts to look at Brexit with “Bregret.”

▪ Reuters: Iran starts enriching uranium to 60 percent purity at Fordow plant.

OPINION

■ The democracy progress you may have missed — everywhere, by Keith Richburg, global opinions columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3AF468V 

■ Let’s talk turkey: Trump fever could be breaking in time for a Thanksgiving feast, by John Bennett, editor-at-large, Roll Call. https://bit.ly/3ETJmwA

WHERE AND WHEN

🦃 Morning Report will be on Thanksgiving hiatus and will return on Nov. 28! Be sure to look out for The Hill’s morning newsletter tipsheet every day during the holiday weekend to keep you up to date on the latest news and analysis. 

👉 The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at 11 a.m. for a pro forma session on Friday.​​

The Senate will convene for a pro forma session at 8 a.m. on Friday. 

The president and first lady Jill Biden are in Nantucket, Mass., where they will celebrate Thanksgiving with family.

The vice president and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are in Los Angeles for the holiday.

Economic indicators: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending on Nov. 19. The Federal Reserve at 2 p.m will release minutes from the Nov. 1-2 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

ELSEWHERE

➤ TECH

After cutting nearly two-thirds of Twitter’s 7,500-person staff in three weeks, Elon Musk is hiring again. The Verge reports that during an all-hands meeting with Twitter employees Monday, Musk said that the company is done with layoffs and actively recruiting for roles in engineering and sales. 

The company has undergone a rocky transition since Musk bought it in late October, gutting its workforce and scaling down content moderation — which caused advertisers to flee the site as misinformation and hate speech ticked up. Insiders say Musk’s “free speech” agenda dismantles safety work at Twitter, and that he has moved deliberately to undermine the platform’s deliberative content-moderation system (The Washington Post).

▪ The New York Times: As Musk cuts costs at Twitter, some bills are going unpaid.

▪ Reuters: Don’t like Musk? Work for us! Tech firms woo ex-Twitter staff.

▪ NPR: How Twitter became one of the world’s preferred platforms for sharing ideas.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Musk’s Twitter takeover triggers partisan clash on government’s role. Democrats say company staff cutbacks threaten user security, while Republicans maintain that the dispute is over free speech.

A Senate antitrust panel will hold a hearing on the lack of competition in the ticketing industry after Ticketmaster’s problems last week managing the sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour, chairwoman Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Tuesday (Reuters).

“The high fees, site disruptions and cancellations that customers experienced shows how Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company does not face any pressure to continually innovate and improve,” Klobuchar said. “We will hold a hearing on how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industry harms customers and artists alike.”

Ticketmaster denied any anti-competitive practices and said it remained under a consent decree with the Justice Department following a 2010 merger, adding that there was no “evidence of systemic violations of the consent decree.”

CNBC: Computer maker HP Inc. announced on Tuesday it will lay off 4,000 to 6,000 employees globally over the next three years to save $1.4 billion or more.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

Anthony Fauci, who worked under seven presidents during his government career and expanded his worldwide reputation during the HIV/AIDS crisis, made his final appearance in the White House briefing room on Tuesday before stepping down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a decision he announced last summer. He urged Americans once again to get vaccinated and boosted (The Hill).

Reacting to a question about political “divisiveness” that made him and other public health specialists targets of criticism during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci said his medical recommendations were science-based and nonpartisan. “As a physician, it pains me, because I don’t want to see anybody get infected. I don’t want to see anybody hospitalized. And I don’t want to see anybody die from COVID,” he added.

The Hill: White House battles pandemic fatigue in vaccine push.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said omicron boosters for COVID-19 are better at protecting against coronavirus infection than previous versions of the shots (The Hill).

What scientists thought they understood about cholesterol is being revised with new research. HDL cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein, often referred to as the “good” cholesterol, may not be as useful in predicting the risk of heart disease and protecting against it as previously thought, according to the National Institutes of Health (CNN).

Once upon a time, based on a study from the 1970s, high levels of HDL cholesterol concentration were associated with low coronary heart disease risk, a link that has since been widely accepted and used in heart disease risk assessments. However, the research only looked at white Americans.

A new examination published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that low levels of HDL cholesterol were associated with higher risk of heart attack among white adults but not Black adults. Also, higher levels of HDL cholesterol were not found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease for either group.

What do the new findings mean for today’s health monitoring? The data suggest current clinical assessments for heart disease risk “may misclassify risk in Black adults, potentially hindering optimal cardiovascular disease prevention and management programs for this group,” according to the study’s authors.

“This research emphasizes the continued need to educate that high levels of HDL are not a free pass and focus must be placed on controlling elevated LDL and other known markers of increased cardiovascular risk,” adds Tara Narula, associate director of the Lenox Hill Women’s Heart Program in New York and a CNN medical correspondent.

Tripledemic: The New York Times’s “The Daily” podcast on Tuesday explored the latest updates with science and global health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli about this winter’s “tripledemic” of COVID-19, influenza and the respiratory virus known as RSV. What does this collision of infections have to do with responses to the pandemic and why are some children requiring hospitalization with respiratory syncytial virus, which is not a new virus? Take a listen HERE.

Information about COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot availability can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,077,800. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,222 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … ✈️ Happy Thanksgiving wishes from Morning Report! We’ve rounded up some good reads to pass the time if — like so many others — you get delayed during holiday weekend transit.

📬 At the White House, meet the trailblazing deaf man, Gregg Trainor, who reads your letter to the president (and has been on the job for 31 years), in Politico by Alex Thompson and Eli Stokols.

⚖️ How Ireland’s Vicky Phelan, after an incorrect Pap test report, exposed a national scandal and became a hero before cervical cancer took her life at age 48, in The New York Times by Ed O’Loughlin.

🪴The beautiful, brutal world of the bonsai: American Ryan Neil undergoes a grueling six-year apprenticeship to a Japanese master, in The New Yorker by Robert Moor.

🦠 David Quammen, the science writer every science nerd wants you to read, found in COVID-19 a story that refused to stay at a safe distance, in The Atlantic by Joshua Sokol.

🌊 The surprising mental health benefits of blue spaces (so good for your health, they can be prescribed by your doctor), by BBC’s Frankie Adkins and Katherine Latham. 

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Source: TEST FEED1

Alaska set to announce results from ‘confusing’ ranked choice system

Alaska’s lengthy and convoluted election process is set to come to an end on Wednesday when Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) and Rep. Mary Peltola (D) are likely to finally emerge as the winners — largely thanks to the state’s new ranked-choice system. 

The Alaska Division of Elections will reveal the final unofficial results on Wednesday night.

Murkowski leads Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka by less than 1,700 votes — 43.3 percent to 42.7 percent.

In the House contest, Peltola holds a commanding lead, with 48.7 percent support over Republicans Sarah Palin at 25.8 percent and Nick Begich at 23.4 percent. 

According to the new election system, contests where neither candidate reaches the 50 percent mark will see the candidate who finished with the lowest numbers eliminated.

The voters who backed that individual then have their votes reallocated to their second choices.

Ultimately, only two candidates are left at the end until a winner is determined.

That is why Murkowski is the favorite, as the votes of Democrat Pat Chesbro, who won 10.4 percent of the vote, will likely shift overwhelmingly to the moderate senator. 

According to a memo sent to interested parties on Monday, the Murkowski campaign expects that at least 70 percent of the 26,874 votes cast for Chesbro will end up in her column, which would put her over the top.

“Any remaining outstanding votes (absentee and early) will break favorably for Lisa Murkowski. When the ranked-choice process plays out on November 23rd and 2nd place votes are tallied, Lisa Murkowski will once again secure re-election,” Nate Adams, Murkowski’s campaign manager, wrote in the memo.

On the House side, all signs point to Peltola winning for the second time in four months, even though more voters in total cast ballots for one of the two Republicans, Palin and Begich.

The reason is that a large number of voters who picked Palin or Begich as their top candidate picked Peltola as their second choice.

In the August primary, 15,000 voters who voted for Begich chose Peltola as their backup pick instead of Palin, who remains a polarizing figure years after her time as the state’s governor ended. In addition, 11,000 Begich voters decided against listing a second candidate at all in the primary. 

All told, the system in place remains difficult to comprehend, especially as voters wait more than two weeks after Election Day for final results. 

“People are starting to look nationally and say ‘this could be the answer.’ I think they need to be cautious about that. … It’s very confusing,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). 

Sullivan, who won reelection under the old system in 2020, said many voters failed to comprehend the system as he took questions at a booth during the Alaska State Fair in Anchorage shortly after the August primary.

“Ninety-five percent of the people talking to me about our new ranked-choice voting system were saying how utterly confusing it was,” Sullivan said. “That was in the primary, so there’s some learning that goes on before in the general. But this idea that this is going to bolster confidence in the system I think remains to be seen.”

The new system affected both the general election and the primaries.

In the old system, Republican candidates competed in one primary while Democrats competed in another.

In the new system, all of the candidates took part in a nonpartisan primary election, with the top four candidates advancing to the general election. 

This effectively helped moderate candidates while hurting more partisan candidates.

One national Republican involved in the race noted that former President Trump, who had battled with Murkowski, did not feature prominently in the race. The last ads featuring him rolled out near the July rally he held in Alaska for Palin and Tshibaka.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also played a big role in the race.

The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) run by his allies spent $6.4 million to boost Murkowski — a sum some Republicans believe could have been more useful in other races, including in Georgia, where Republican Herschel Walker finds himself in a runoff against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D). 

“Pick your poison,” said the national Republican involved in the race when asked where it could have helped, adding that Tshibaka was outspent roughly 7 to 1 in part because of SLF’s involvement. “I find it hard to justify. Maybe they don’t.”

“This was a system put in place to save Lisa Murkowski’s ass. … You can blame Palin and Begich all you want, but it’s the system that elects Mary Peltola,” the national Republican continued. “That’s one less vote for Kevin McCarthy for Lisa Murkowski’s sake. He could use another vote, couldn’t he?”

McCarthy is the California Republican picked by his conference to serve as Speaker. He faces a floor vote in January where some Republicans are threatening to withhold their support.

Adams noted to The Hill that Murkowski, who is seeking a fourth term in the upper chamber, never advocated for the ranked-choice system. He added that the campaign was “playing the game on the field” under the rules that were at play. 

As for SLF, the McConnell-allied group backed Murkowski because of its policy of supporting incumbents.

“Lisa Murkowski has been a tireless advocate for Alaskan industries and jobs, and SLF was proud to support her re-election to the Senate,” said Jack Pandol, an SLF spokesperson, in a statement.

Assuming she loses, a future campaign could be in the cards for Tshibaka, 42, though the next round of statewide contests for Senate and governor are not until 2026. Peltola’s House seat will be up for election again in 2024.

Sullivan noted that because of the system, he isn’t quite sure how he will operate his campaign in 2026.  

“I don’t know. I truly don’t know,” Sullivan said. “I don’t have any idea right now. I don’t know if anybody does.”

Source: TEST FEED1