The two candidates for U.S. president are making what they call their “closing arguments” to voters in this final week before the election. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti brings us the sights and sounds from two rallies.
…
Author: SeeUS
US court declines RFK Jr’s request to order 2 states to drop him from ballot
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a bid Tuesday by former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan for the Nov. 5 election. Kennedy has said he wants voters who would have backed him to cast ballots for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
The court declined Kennedy’s emergency requests to order the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to take him off the ballot in those states. Michigan and Wisconsin are among a handful of closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of the race between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from the decision concerning the Michigan ballot only. No other justice publicly dissented.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist known by his initials RFK Jr., has sought the Supreme Court’s intervention in his attempts to stay on the ballot in some states while dropping off others. In September, the Supreme Court rejected his bid to be restored to the ballot in New York.
Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed the former president’s candidacy. Kennedy has urged his supporters everywhere to back Trump and has withdrawn from the ballot in a number of Republican-leaning states.
…
Judge dismisses Republican lawsuit targeting Pennsylvania overseas ballots
A U.S. judge on Tuesday dismissed a Republican lawsuit seeking to force election battleground state Pennsylvania to strengthen its procedures for verifying ballots submitted by military and overseas voters.
Six Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives seeking reelection on November 5 had sued Pennsylvania’s top election officials on September 30. The Republicans had argued that the state was improperly exempting overseas voters from a requirement that their identity documents be verified, creating a vulnerability for fraudulent votes to be submitted.
Pennsylvania is one of a handful of closely contested states that are expected to decide the outcome of the U.S. presidential race pitting Republican Donald Trump against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner dismissed the case in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, deciding that the plaintiffs had waited too long to file their complaint given that Pennsylvania’s procedures had been in place for years.
The suit was one of dozens around the country in which Republicans have challenged voting procedures or sought to purge voter rolls in what they call a push to ensure that people do not vote illegally. That legal blitz has been faltering. In the past three weeks, Trump allies have been dealt at least 11 court losses.
Conner also said Erick Kaardal, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, had not provided evidence that there had been foreign influence over Pennsylvania’s overseas ballots. The judge wrote that when he pressed Kaardal for such evidence during an October 18 hearing, the lawyer “effectively conceded that all he had was ‘concerns.'”
“Plaintiffs cannot rely on phantom fears of foreign malfeasance to excuse their lack of diligence,” Conner wrote.
“We don’t want votes from Iran or Russia or invalid votes counting,” Kaardal had told the hearing in Harrisburg federal court over a motion to dismiss the case filed by the Democratic National Committee and Pennsylvania’s top elections official.
The Election Research Institute, a conservative group whose lawyer Karen DiSalvo brought the case alongside Kaardal, said the plaintiffs were disappointed by the dismissal and were considering options for appeal.
Judges in the election battleground states of Michigan and North Carolina this month also rejected lawsuits filed by the Republican National Committee seeking to block votes from some Americans living overseas.
In those cases, the Republicans argued the states improperly allowed U.S. citizens living abroad who had never lived in those states to vote there.
…
Teri Garr, comic actor of ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Tootsie,’ has died
LOS ANGELES — Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, has died. She was 79.
Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer said. Garr battled other health problems in recent years and underwent an operation in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm.
Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”
The actor, who was sometimes credited as Terri, Terry or Terry Ann during her long career, seemed destined for show business from her childhood.
Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comedian; her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dance lessons at 6 and by 14 was dancing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies.
She was 16 when she joined the road company of West Side Story in Los Angeles, and as early as 1963 she began appearing in bit parts in films.
She recalled in a 1988 interview how she won the West Side Story role. After being dropped from her first audition, she returned a day later in different clothes and was accepted.
From there, the blonde, statuesque Garr found steady work dancing in movies, and she appeared in the chorus of nine Presley films, including Viva Las Vegas, Roustabout and Clambake.
She also appeared on numerous television shows, including Star Trek, Dr. Kildare and Batman, and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show Shindig, the rock concert performance T.A.M.I. and a cast member of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
Her big film break came as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in 1974’s Francis Ford Coppola thriller The Conversation. That led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who said he would hire her for the role of Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant in 1974’s Young Frankenstein — if she could speak with a German accent.
“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once recalled.
The film established her as a talented comedy performer, with New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael proclaiming her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on the screen.”
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped land her roles in Oh God! opposite George Burns and John Denver, Mr. Mom (as Michael Keaton’s wife) and Tootsie in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange.
Although best known for comedy, Garr showed in such films as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion and The Escape Artist that she could handle drama equally well.
She had a flair for spontaneous humor, often playing David Letterman’s foil during guest appearances on NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman early in its run.
Her appearances became so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing, that for a time rumors cropped up that they were romantically involved. Years later, Letterman credited those early appearances with helping make the show a hit.
It was also during those years that Garr began to feel something in her right leg. It began in 1983 and eventually spread to her right arm. By 1999 the symptoms had become so severe that she consulted a doctor. The diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.
For three years Garr didn’t reveal her illness.
“I was afraid that I wouldn’t get work,” she explained in a 2003 interview. “People hear MS and think, ‘Oh, my God, the person has two days to live.'”
After going public, she became a spokeswoman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, making humorous speeches to gatherings in the U.S. and Canada.
“You have to find your center and roll with the punches because that’s a hard thing to do: to have people pity you,” she said in 2005. “Just trying to explain to people that I’m OK is tiresome.”
She also continued to act, appearing on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Greetings From Tucson, Life With Bonnie and other TV shows. She also had a brief recurring role on Friends in the 1990s as Lisa Kudrow’s mother. After several failed romances, Garr married contractor John O’Neill in 1993. They adopted a daughter, Molly, before divorcing in 1996.
…
US reiterates ‘one China’ policy amid reports of Xi’s request on Taiwan
Washington — Resisting pressure from Beijing to publicly reject independence for Taiwan, the Biden administration underscores there is no change in its “one China” policy which takes no stand on the issue.
“We do not support Taiwan independence. We expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion,” a senior administration official told VOA Tuesday, underscoring long-standing U.S. policy on the thorny issue. “We oppose unilateral changes to the status quo by either side.”
The confirmation followed reports that during their last in-person meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked U.S. President Joe Biden to change the language the administration uses when discussing its position on Taiwan independence.
On the sidelines of the APEC meeting near San Francisco last November, Xi reportedly told Biden he wants the U.S. to use language stating it “opposes” instead of “does not support” independence for Taiwan, the current phrase used in U.S. official statements.
The administration has been “consistent on our long-standing one China policy,” the official said. Under the policy, the U.S. acknowledges but does not endorse Beijing’s view that it has sovereignty over Taiwan. It considers Taiwan’s status as unsettled.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.
Beijing’s push for stronger language is not new. Ahead of the Biden-Xi meeting last year, VOA reported that Foreign Minister Wang Yi also made the request in his meetings with U.S. counterparts.
The Chinese have been asking for this shift, and in some instances falsely asserting that the U.S. position is to oppose Taiwanese independence, said Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“I find it unlikely that the United States will take this advice without some substantial concession from China on its own position about Taiwan,” Cooper told VOA. “I doubt this will get any traction in Washington unless it is part of a longer-term conversation about de-escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait.”
Biden and Xi likely to meet again in person next month in South America, where both are expected to attend an APEC meeting in Lima, Peru, and a G-20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It will likely be Biden’s last meeting with the Chinese leader before leaving office in January.
“It will probably be an opportunity for the two leaders to say goodbye and for their teams to wrap up a couple of loose ends, perhaps including an announcement or two on people-to-people issues,” said Cooper.
Beijing is no doubt gearing up for a change in U.S. administration ahead of the election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Both have vowed to be tough on China, with Trump saying he would impose “150% to 200%” tariffs on China if it sought to blockade Taiwan.
Flared tensions
Cross-strait tensions have flared many times in recent years. On Sunday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said Chinese warplanes and warships carried out another “combat patrol” near the island, following Beijing’s threat to respond with countermeasures to a $2 billion arms sale by the United States.
The administration announced it approved the package last week, which includes its first delivery of three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, advanced weapons that have been battle-tested in Ukraine.
Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is Taiwan’s strongest unofficial ally and Washington is legally bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself.
China “strongly condemns” the sale. “We will take resolute countermeasures and take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this story.
…
Trump ally Steve Bannon released after serving 4 months in prison for contempt of Congress
DANBURY, Conn. — Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon was released from prison early Tuesday, after serving a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Bannon left the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, according to Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons. He planned to hold a news conference later in the day in Manhattan, his representatives said. He’s also expected to resume his podcast Tuesday.
Bannon, 70, reported to the prison July 1 after the Supreme Court rejected his bid to delay the prison sentence while he appeals his conviction.
A jury found Bannon guilty in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.
When he began serving his sentence in July, Bannon called himself a “political prisoner.”
“I am proud of going to prison,” he said at the time, adding that he was standing up Attorney General Merrick Garland and a “corrupt” Justice Department.
Trump, a Republican, is seeking to regain the presidency in next week’s election against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
A federal appeals court panel upheld Bannon’s convictions in May. Bannon is now asking the full appeals court to hear his case. His legal team had argued that the congressional subpoena was invalid because Trump had asserted executive privilege. Prosecutors, though, say Bannon had left the White House years before and Trump had never invoked executive privilege in front of the committee.
Bannon faces additional criminal charges in New York state court, alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges. A trial in that case is scheduled to begin in December.
…
The potential impact of Trump’s tariff proposal
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed sweeping tariffs if elected for a second term: a 20% universal tax and 60% tax on goods from China. He argues that the policy will help create jobs, shrink the national debt and boost government revenue for public services, such as child care. Most economists, however, agree that it is ultimately U.S. consumers who will pay more. Economists also warn of unintended ripple effects that could do more harm than good to the U.S. economy. This explainer video explores how increased tariffs might affect U.S. buyers, domestic and foreign producers, and the budget.
…
Washington Post’s Bezos defends decision to end presidential endorsements
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the newspaper’s decision not to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate after a report that more than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions following the move.
The decision blocked an endorsement of Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris, the National Public Radio report said, and many people in messages on the newspaper’s website criticized Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com and rocket company Blue Origin.
Bezos, in an opinion piece late on Monday, said “most people believe the media is biased” and the Washington Post and other newspapers needed to boost their credibility.
No candidate was informed or consulted about the decision and that there was “no quid pro quo,” Bezos said, adding that there was no connection between the decision and a meeting between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Blue Origin’s CEO on the same day.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”
The subscription cancellations as of midday represented about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well, reported NPR, which said a series of columnists had resigned their positions in protest.
The Washington Post declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.
In a post on Friday, William Lewis, The Washington Post’s publisher and CEO, said the newspaper would not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election, nor in any future presidential election.
“We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” Lewis wrote.
“The Washington Post’s decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign is a terrible mistake,” wrote 20 columnists in an opinion piece on the Post’s website, adding that it “represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love.”
…
Ex-US Marine sentenced to 7 years for white supremacist plot
Washington — A former U.S. Marine was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday for his role in a white supremacist plot to destroy power facilities.
Jordan Duncan, 29, pleaded guilty in North Carolina in June to aiding in the manufacture of a firearm.
Duncan and four other men, including two other ex-Marines, were arrested in 2020 in connection with what authorities described as a neo-Nazi plot to sow chaos by targeting the power grid.
“We have now brought to justice all five of the defendants involved in a self-described ‘modern day SS,’ who conspired, prepared, and trained to attack America’s power grid in the name of violent white supremacist ideology,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the group was “inspired by racially motivated violent extremism.”
“If the defendants had been able to carry out an attack it could have caused suffering to thousands of American citizens,” Wray said.
The other four defendants were previously sentenced to prison terms between 21 months and 10 years.
According to court documents, two members of the group were active on “Iron March,” a neo-Nazi online forum, until it was closed in 2017. They also recruited the other three people involved.
The group accumulated firearms and produced a video of live-fire training in the desert near Boise, Idaho, that ended with the phrase “Come home white man” as the final frame.
Components of the power grid in the northwestern United States were listed as potential targets in handwritten notes found in the possession of one of the conspirators.
…
One person dead in Iowa from Lassa fever, state health department says
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services on Monday confirmed the death of a middle-aged eastern Iowa resident from Lassa fever.
The individual had recently returned from travel to West Africa, where it is believed the person contracted the virus, the state health department said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to confirm the diagnosis of Lassa fever, the state health department said. The CDC said it assesses the risk to the general public to be extremely low.
Lassa fever is a viral disease common in West Africa, but rarely seen in the United States.
There have been eight travel-associated cases of Lassa fever in the United States in the past 55 years, according to the Iowa health department.
In West Africa, the Lassa virus is carried by rodents and spread to humans through contact with urine or droppings of infected rodents.
About 100,000 to 300,000 cases of Lassa fever and 5,000 related deaths occur in West Africa each year, according to the CDC.
…
McDonald’s Quarter Pounder returns after E. coli testing rules out beef
LOS ANGELES — McDonald’s announced Sunday that Quarter Pounders will again be on its menu at hundreds of its restaurants after testing ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to the popular burgers that killed one person and sickened at least 75 others across 13 states.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to believe that slivered onions from a single supplier are the likely source of contamination, McDonald’s said in a statement. It said it will resume selling the Quarter Pounder at affected restaurants — without slivered onions — in the coming week.
As of Friday, the outbreak had expanded to at least 75 people sick in 13 states, federal health officials said. A total of 22 people had been hospitalized, and two developed a dangerous kidney disease complication, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. One person has died in Colorado.
Early information analyzed by the FDA showed that uncooked slivered onions used on the burgers “are a likely source of contamination,” the agency said. McDonald’s has confirmed that Taylor Farms, a California-based produce company, was the supplier of the fresh onions used in the restaurants involved in the outbreak, and that they had come from a facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
McDonald’s pulled the Quarter Pounder burger from menus in several states — mostly in the Midwest and Mountain states — when the outbreak was announced Tuesday. McDonald’s said Friday that slivered onions from the Colorado Springs facility were distributed to approximately 900 of its restaurants, including some in transportation hubs like airports.
The company said it removed slivered onions sourced from that facility from its supply chain on Tuesday. McDonald’s said it has decided to stop sourcing onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility “indefinitely.”
The 900 McDonald’s restaurants that normally received slivered onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility will resume sales of Quarter Pounders without slivered onions, McDonald’s said.
Testing by the Colorado Department of Agriculture ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak, McDonald’s said.
The Department of Agriculture received multiple lots of fresh and frozen beef patties collected from various Colorado McDonald’s locations associated with the E. coli investigation. All samples were found to be negative for E. coli, the department said.
Taylor Farms said Friday that it had preemptively recalled yellow onions sent to its customers from its Colorado facility and continues to work with the CDC and the FDA as they investigate.
While it remains unclear if the recalled onions were the source of the outbreak, several other fast-food restaurants — including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King — pulled onions from some menus in certain areas this week.
Colorado had the most illnesses reported as of Friday, with 26 cases. At least 13 people were sickened in Montana, 11 in Nebraska, 5 each in New Mexico and Utah, 4 each in Missouri and Wyoming, two in Michigan and one each in Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington, the CDC reported.
McDonald’s said Friday it didn’t pull the Quarter Pounder from any additional restaurants and noted that some cases in states outside the original region were tied to travel.
The CDC said some people who got sick reported traveling to other states before their symptoms started. At least three people said they ate at McDonald’s during their travel. Illnesses were reported between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11.
The outbreak involves infections with E. coli 0157:H7, a type of bacteria that produces a dangerous toxin. It causes about 74,000 infections in the U.S. annually, leading to more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 61 deaths each year, according to CDC.
Symptoms of E. coli poisoning can occur quickly, within a day or two of eating contaminated food. They typically include fever, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea and signs of dehydration — little or no peeing, increased thirst and dizziness. The infection is especially dangerous for children younger than 5, people who are elderly, pregnant or who have weakened immune systems.
…
Seven European countries match US in startup-friendly laws, report says
STOCKHOLM — Seven European countries have changed their laws to increase employee ownership in startups to rival the U.S. in attracting talent and investment, while other countries are lagging, a report by venture capital firm Index Ventures found.
While stock options were integral to Silicon Valley’s success, Europe has been hampered by bureaucracy and by taxing employees too early, among other restrictions.
The European Union needs a coordinated industrial policy, rapid decisions and massive investment if it wants to keep pace with the U.S. and China economically, Mario Draghi said in a long awaited report last month.
Over 500 startup CEOs and founders joined a campaign called “Not Optional” in 2019 to change rules that govern employee ownership — the practice of giving staff options to acquire a slice of the company, as European-based companies compete for talent with U.S. firms.
Germany, France, Portugal and the UK lead European countries in making changes that match or exceed those of the U.S., while Finland, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden got lower ratings in the Index report.
When companies such as Revolut and others go public, that ownership translates into real money for employees, said Martin Mignot, a partner at Index and an investor at fintech Revolut, which is valued at $45 billion.
…
Missouri sports betting ballot measure highlights national debate about tax rates
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The ads promoting a November ballot measure to legalize sports betting in Missouri tout the potential for millions of new tax dollars devoted to schools. If voters approve the measure, it’s a good bet they will see even more ads offering special promotions for bettors.
Many of those promotional costs — in which sportsbooks provide cash-like credits for customers to place bets — will be exempt from state taxes, effectively limiting the new revenue for education.
The Missouri ballot measure highlights an emerging debate among policymakers over how to tax the rapidly growing industry, which has spread from one state — Nevada — to 38 states and Washington, D.C., since the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to legalized sports wagering in 2018.
“It’s a fledging industry,” said Brent Evans, an assistant finance professor at Georgia College & State University who has taught classes on gambling. “So nobody really knows what is a reasonable tax.”
Since authorizing sports betting, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., all have already raised or restructured their tax rates. And Colorado and Virginia have pared back the tax deductions they originally allowed.
Tax rates range from a low of 6.75% in states such Iowa to 51% in states such as New York. That tax gap is even wider, because Iowa allows promotional bets to be deducted from taxable revenue while New York does not.
About half the states allow tax deductions for promotional costs. It’s a common way of enticing people to start — or continue — making bets. But in the short-term, it also can decrease the tax revenue available for governments and schools.
Missouri’s proposed 10% tax rate on sports betting revenue is below the national average of 19% that sportsbooks paid to states last year. Because of deductions for “free play,” there could be some months in which sportsbooks owe nothing to the state. Missouri’s proposed constitutional amendment acknowledges that possibility, stating that negative balances can be carried over from one month to the next until revenue rises enough to owe taxes.
Unlike in some states, Missouri’s amendment caps the amount of promotional credits that can be deducted from taxable revenue, at 25% of all wagers. But it appears unlikely that cap would come into play. An analysis conducted by consultant Eilers & Krejcik Gaming for amendment supporters projects promotional bets will comprise around 8% of total wagers in Missouri’s first year of sports betting, declining after that.
The Missouri proposal “is very much in line with what has worked and been effective in other states,” said Jack Cardetti, a spokesman for Winning for Missouri Education, the group backing the measure.
After voters narrowly approved it, Colorado launched sports betting in 2020 with a 10% tax rate and full deductions for promotional bets. It logged $2.7 billion of total bets during its first full fiscal year, yielding $8.1 million in taxes, just slightly below legislative projections. But Colorado changed its law starting in 2023 to cap promotional tax deductions at 2.5% of total bets, gradually declining to 1 .75% by July 2026.
Colorado’s sports betting tax revenue has since risen to over $30 million in its most recent fiscal year. That growth led lawmakers to place a proposal on the November ballot seeking permission for the state to keep more than the original $29 million limit on sports betting tax revenue.
Capping tax deductions for promotional bets is a good step, said Richard Auxier, a principal policy associate at the nonprofit Tax Policy Center. But he questions why some states exempt them from taxes in the first place.
“We don’t give out free samples of cannabis when a state legalizes cannabis,” Auxier said. “Is this something you want to be subsidizing through your state tax policy — to encourage people to gamble?”
The Missouri amendment was placed on the November ballot by initiative petition after legislation to legalize sports betting repeatedly stalled in the state Senate. The $43 million campaign — a record for a Missouri ballot measure — has been been funded entirely by DraftKings and FanDuel, which dominate the nationwide sports betting marketplace. If the measure passes, the companies could apply for two statewide licenses to conduct online sports betting. The amendment authorizes additional sports betting licenses for Missouri casinos and professional sports teams.
The $14 million opposition campaign has been funded entirely by Caesars Entertainment, which operates three of Missouri’s 13 casinos. Although Caesars generally supports sports betting, it opposes “the way this measure is written,” said Brooke Foster, a spokesperson for the opposition group Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment.
In some other states, sports betting is run through casinos. Though research is limited, a study of seven states released last year found that casino gambling revenue declined as online sports betting increased.
“There will definitely be a shift from placing bets in a physical space with a Missouri incorporated casino versus hopping on an app in your living room,” Foster said.
The effect of different tax rates can be seen in Illinois and New Jersey, which spearheaded the court challenge leading to widespread legal sports betting. People in each state placed between $11.5 billion and $12 billion of sports bets last year, resulting in $1 billion of revenue for sportsbooks after winnings were paid to customers, according to figures from the American Gaming Association.
New Jersey took in $129 million in tax revenue, based on a 14.25% tax rate for online sports bets and a 9.75% tax rate with some promotional deductions for sports bets at casinos and racetracks. Illinois took in $162 million of tax revenue — one-quarter more than New Jersey — with a 15% tax rate in most places and no promotional deductions.
But Illinois officials weren’t satisfied with those results. Beginning in July, Illinois imposed a progressive tax scale, starting with a 20% tax on sports betting revenue of less than $30 million and rising to a 40% rate on revenue exceeding $200 million.
Some sportsbooks representatives had raised the possibility of leaving Illinois if tax rates rose. But that hasn’t happened.
There’s also not much evidence that sportsbooks worsen the odds for wagers in states where they pay higher taxes, said Joe Weinert, executive vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group, a consulting firm.
“The sports betting operators compete vigorously for bettors,” he said, “and how you compete vigorously is to offer attractive odds and good promotions.”
…
How to prepare for potential health effects of upcoming end to daylight saving time
The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark as a pocket by late afternoon for the next few months in the U.S.
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time next Sunday, Nov. 3, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9 when we will again “spring forward” with the return of daylight saving time.
That spring time change can be tougher on your body. Darker mornings and lighter evenings can knock your internal body clock out of whack, making it harder to fall asleep on time for weeks or longer. Studies have even found an uptick in heart attacks and strokes right after the March time change.
“Fall back” should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying exercise while there’s still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight of fall and winter, may struggle, too.
Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.
Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do — mostly in Europe and North America — the date that clocks are changed varies.
Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time.
Here’s what to know about the twice yearly ritual.
How the body reacts to light
The brain has a master clock that is set by exposure to sunlight and darkness. This circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle that determines when we become sleepy and when we’re more alert. The patterns change with age, one reason that early-to-rise youngsters evolve into hard-to-wake teens.
Morning light resets the rhythm. By evening, levels of a hormone called melatonin begin to surge, triggering drowsiness. Too much light in the evening — that extra hour from daylight saving time — delays that surge and the cycle gets out of sync.
And that circadian clock affects more than sleep, also influencing things like heart rate, blood pressure, stress hormones and metabolism.
How do time changes affect sleep?
Even an hour change on the clock can throw off sleep schedules — because even though the clocks change, work and school start times stay the same.
That’s a problem because so many people are already sleep deprived. About 1 in 3 U.S. adults sleep less than the recommended seven-plus hours nightly, and more than half of U.S. teens don’t get the recommended eight-plus hours on weeknights.
Sleep deprivation is linked to heart disease, cognitive decline, obesity and numerous other problems.
How to prepare for the time change
Some people try to prepare for a time change jolt by changing their bed times little by little in the days before the change. There are ways to ease the adjustment, including getting more sunshine to help reset your circadian rhythm for healthful sleep.
Will the U.S. ever get rid of the time change?
Lawmakers occasionally propose getting rid of the time change altogether. The most prominent recent attempt, a now-stalled bipartisan bill named the Sunshine Protection Act, proposes making daylight saving time permanent. Health experts say the lawmakers have it backward — standard time should be made permanent.
…
On Navajo Nation, push to electrify more homes on vast reservation
HALCHITA, Utah — After a five-year wait, Lorraine Black and Ricky Gillis heard the rumblings of an electrical crew reach their home on the sprawling Navajo Nation.
In five days’ time, their home would be connected to the power grid, replacing their reliance on a few solar panels and propane lanterns. No longer would the CPAP machine Gillis uses for sleep apnea or his home heart monitor transmitting information to doctors 400 miles away face interruptions due to intermittent power. It also means Black and Gillis can now use more than a few appliances — such as a fridge, a TV, and an evaporative cooling unit — at the same time.
“We’re one of the luckiest people who get to get electric,” Gillis said.
Many Navajo families still live without running water and electricity, a product of historic neglect and the struggle to get services to far-flung homes on the 70,000-square-kilometer (27,000-square-mile) Native American reservation that lies in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Some rely on solar panels or generators, which can be patchy, and others have no electricity whatsoever.
Gillis and Black filed an application to connect their home back in 2019. But when the coronavirus pandemic started ravaging the tribe and everything besides essential services was shut down on the reservation, it further stalled the process.
Their wait highlights the persistent challenges in electrifying every Navajo home, even with recent injections of federal money for tribal infrastructure and services and as extreme heat in the Southwest intensified by climate change adds to the urgency.
“We are a part of America that a lot of the time feels kind of left out,” said Vircynthia Charley, district manager at the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, a non-for-profit utility that provides electric, water, wastewater, natural gas and solar energy services.
For years, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority has worked to get more Navajo homes connected to the grid faster. Under a program called Light Up Navajo, which uses a mix of private and public funding, outside utilities from across the U.S. send electric crews to help connect homes and extend power lines.
But installing power on the reservation roughly the size of West Virginia is time-consuming and expensive due to its rugged geography and the vast distances between homes. Drilling for power poles there can take several hours because of underground rock deposits while some homes near Monument Valley must have power lines installed underground to meet strict regulations around development in the area.
About 32% of Navajo homes still have no electricity. Connecting the remaining 10,400 homes on the reservation would cost $416 million, said Deenise Becenti, government and public affairs manager at the utility.
This year, Light Up Navajo connected 170 more families to the grid. Since the program started in 2019, 882 Navajo families have had their homes electrified. If the program stays funded, Becenti said it could take another 26 years to connect every home on the reservation.
Those that get connected immediately reap the benefits.
Until this month, Black and Gillis’ solar panels that the utility installed a few years ago would last about two to three days before their battery drained in cloudy weather. It would take another two days to recharge.
“You had to really watch the watts and whatever you’re using on a cloudy day,” Gillis said.
Then a volunteer power crew from Colorado helped install 14 power poles while the tribal utility authority drilled holes six feet deep in which the poles would sit. The crew then ran a wire about a mile down a red sand road from the main power line to the couple’s home.
“The lights are brighter,” Black remarked after her home was connected.
In recent years, significantly more federal money has been allocated for tribes to improve infrastructure on reservations, including $32 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — of which Navajo Nation received $112 million for electric connections. The Navajo tribal utility also received $17 million through the Biden administration’s climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, to connect families to the electric grid. But it can be slow to see the effects of that money on the ground due to bureaucracy and logistics.
Next spring, the tribal utility authority hopes to connect another 150 homes, including the home of Priscilla and Leo Dan.
For the couple, having grid electricity at their home near Navajo Mountain in Arizona would end a nearly 12-year wait. They currently live in a recreational vehicle elsewhere closer to their jobs but have worked on their home on the reservation for years. With power there, they could spend more time where Priscilla grew up and where her dad still lives.
It would make life simpler, Priscilla said. “Because otherwise, everything, it seems like, takes twice as long to do.”
…
‘Venom: The Last Dance’ misses projections as superhero films’ grip on theaters loosens
New York — “Venom: The Last Dance” showed less bite than expected at the box office, collecting $51 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, significantly down from the alien symbiote franchise’s previous entries.
Projections for the third “Venom” film from Sony Pictures had been closer to $65 million. More concerning, though, was the drop off from the first two “Venom” films. The 2018 original debuted with $80.2 million, while the 2021 follow-up, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” opened with $90 million even as theaters were still in recovery mode during the pandemic.
“The Last Dance,” starring Tom Hardy as a journalist who shares his body with an alien entity also voiced by Hardy, could still turn a profit for Sony. Its production budget, not accounting for promotion and marketing, was about $120 million — significantly less than most comic-book films.
But “The Last Dance” is also performing better overseas. Internationally, “Venom: The Last Dance” collected $124 million over the weekend, including $46 million over five days of release in China. That’s good enough for one of the best international weekends of the year for a Hollywood release.
Still, neither reviews (36% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) nor audience scores (a franchise-low “B-” CinemaScore) have been good for the film scripted by Kelly Marcel and Hardy, and directed by Marcel.
The low weekend for “Venom: The Last Dance” also likely insures that superhero films will see their lowest-grossing year in a dozen years, not counting the pandemic year of 2020, according to David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.
Following on the heels of the “Joker: Folie à Deux” flop, Gross estimates that 2024 superhero films will gross about $2.25 billion worldwide. The only upcoming entry is Marvel’s “Kraven the Hunter,” due out Dec. 13. Even with the $1.3 billion of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the genre hasn’t, overall, been dominating the way it once did. In 2018, for example, superhero films accounted for more than $7 billion in global ticket sales.
Last week’s top film, the Paramount Pictures horror sequel “Smile 2,” dropped to second place with $9.4 million. That brings its two-week total to $83.7 million worldwide.
The weekend’s biggest success story might have been “Conclave,” the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”). The Focus Features release, a major Oscar contender, launched with $6.5 million in 1,753 theaters.
That put “Conclave” into third place, making it the rare adult-oriented drama to make a mark theatrically. Some 77% of ticket buyers were over the age of 35, Focus said. With a strong opening and stellar reviews, “Conclave” could continue to gather momentum both with moviegoers and Oscar voters.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
-
“Venom: The Last Dance,” $51 million.
-
“Smile 2,” $9.4 million.
-
“Conclave,” $6.5 million.
-
“The Wild Robot,” $6.5 million.
-
“We Live in Time,” $4.8 million.
-
“Terrifier 3,” $4.3 million.
-
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $3.2 million.
-
“Anora,” $867,142.
-
“Piece by Piece,” $720,000.
-
“Transformers One,” $720,000.
…
What is GivingTuesday? Annual day of charitable giving approaches
Since it started as a hashtag in 2012, GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, has become one of the biggest fundraising days of the year for nonprofits in the U.S.
In 2022 and 2023, GivingTuesday raised $3.1 billion for charitable organizations, according to estimates from GivingTuesday.
This year, GivingTuesday is on December 3.
How did GivingTuesday start?
The #GivingTuesday hashtag started as a project of the 92nd Street Y in New York in 2012 and became an independent organization in 2020. It’s grown into a worldwide network of local organizations that promote giving in their communities, often on different dates that have local relevance, such as holidays.
Now, GivingTuesday, the nonprofit, also convenes researchers working on topics about everyday giving. It collects data from a wide range of sources such as payment processors, crowdfunding sites, employee giving software and institutions that offer donor-advised funds, a kind of charitable-giving account.
What is the purpose of GivingTuesday?
The hashtag was started to promote generosity, and the nonprofit continues to promote giving in the broadest sense.
For nonprofits, the point of GivingTuesday is to raise money and engage their supporters. Many will be familiar with the barrage of email and mail appeals that coincide on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Essentially all major American nonprofits will organize fundraising campaigns, and many smaller, local groups also participate.
Nonprofits don’t have to be affiliated in any way with GivingTuesday, the organization, to run a fundraising campaign. They can just do it, although GivingTuesday does provide graphics and advice. In that way, it remains a grassroots effort with groups and donors participating however they like.
Has GivingTuesday been successful?
That depends on how success is measured, but it certainly has grown far beyond the initial effort to promote giving on social media. The day has become an enduring and well-known event that seeks to center charitable giving, volunteering and civic participation in the United States and around the world.
For years, GivingTuesday has been a major focus of fundraising for nonprofits, with many seeking to organize matching donations from major donors and leverage their networks of supporters to contribute. It is the beginning of the end-of-year fundraising rush, as nonprofits seek to reach their budget targets for the following year.
Donations on GivingTuesday in 2022 and 2023 reached $3.1 billion, an increase from $2.7 billion in 2021. While that’s a lot to raise in a single day, the trend last year was flat and with fewer donors giving, which the organization said is a worrying sign.
…
Unpacking America’s urban-rural divide
The divide between urban and rural voters is a key indicator in U.S. electoral politics. Cities favoring Democrats and rural areas favoring Republicans isn’t new. But since 2000, the gap has grown dramatically. What is behind this trend, and why is it so important? The answer is partly economic — but there are also complex cultural factors involved. Produced by Yass Monem and Nicky Woolf.
…
What is TPS?
An explanation of Temporary Protected Status, also known as TPS
…
Vietnamese Americans in California turn to politics to address local, national concerns
The Little Saigon district in California’s Orange County is home to a large concentration of Vietnamese people. In hopes of engaging these voters, candidates for public office are putting up signs and holding events. VOA’s Long Nguyen reports, Elizabeth Cherneff narrates. Camera: Vu Nguyen.
…
US Navy will apologize for 1882 obliteration of Tlingit village in Alaska
Shells fell on the Alaska Native village as winter approached, and then sailors landed and burned what was left of homes, food caches and canoes. Conditions grew so dire in the following months that elders sacrificed their own lives to spare food for surviving children.
It was Oct. 26, 1882, in Angoon, a Tlingit village of about 420 people in the southeastern Alaska panhandle. Now, 142 years later, the perpetrator of the bombardment — the U.S. Navy — is set to say it is sorry.
Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, the commander of the Navy’s northwest region, will issue the apology during a ceremony on Saturday, the anniversary of the atrocity. While the rebuilt Angoon received $90,000 in a settlement with the Department of Interior in 1973, village leaders have for decades sought an apology as well, beginning each yearly remembrance by asking three times, “Is there anyone here from the Navy to apologize?”
“You can imagine the generations of people that have died since 1882 that have wondered what had happened, why it happened, and wanted an apology of some sort, because in our minds, we didn’t do anything wrong,” said Daniel Johnson Jr., a tribal head in Angoon.
The attack was one of a series of conflicts between the American military and Alaska Natives in the years after the U.S. bought the territory from Russia in 1867. The U.S. Navy issued an apology last month for destroying the nearby village of Kake in 1869, and the Army has indicated that it plans to apologize for shelling Wrangell, also in southeast Alaska, that year, though no date has been set.
The Navy acknowledges the actions it undertook or ordered in Angoon and Kake caused deaths, a loss of resources and multigenerational trauma, Navy civilian spokesperson Julianne Leinenveber said in an email.
“An apology is not only warranted, but long overdue,” she said.
Today, Angoon remains a quaint village of about 420 people, with colorful old homes and totem poles clustered on the west side of Admiralty Island, accessible by ferry or float plane, in the Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest. The residents are vastly outnumbered by brown bears, and the village in recent years has strived to foster its ecotourism industry. Bald eagles and humpback whales abound, and the salmon and halibut fishing is excellent.
Accounts vary as to what prompted its destruction, but they generally begin with the accidental death of a Tlingit shaman, Tith Klane. Klane was killed when a harpoon gun exploded on a whaling ship owned by his employer, the North West Trading Co.
The Navy’s version says tribal members forced the vessel to shore, possibly took hostages and, in accordance with their customs, demanded 200 blankets in compensation.
The company declined to provide the blankets and ordered the Tlingits to return to work. Instead, in sorrow, they painted their faces with coal tar and tallow — something the company’s employees took as a precursor to an insurrection. The company’s superintendent then sought help from Naval Cmdr. E.C. Merriman, the top U.S. official in Alaska, saying a Tlingit uprising threatened the lives and property of white residents.
The Tlingit version contends the boat’s crew, which included Tlingit members, likely remained with the vessel out of respect, planning to attend the funeral, and that no hostages were taken. Johnson said the tribe never would have demanded compensation so soon after the death.
Merriman arrived on Oct. 25 and insisted the tribe provide 400 blankets by noon the next day as punishment for disobedience. When the Tlingits turned over just 81, Merriman attacked, destroying 12 clan houses, smaller homes, canoes and the village’s food stores.
Six children died in the attack, and “there’s untold numbers of elderly and infants who died that winter of both cold, exposure and hunger,” Johnson said.
Billy Jones, Tith Klane’s nephew, was 13 when Angoon was destroyed. Around 1950, he recorded two interviews, and his account was later included in a booklet prepared for the 100th anniversary of the bombing in 1982.
“They left us homeless on the beach,” Jones said.
Rosita Worl, the president of Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, described how some elders that winter “walked into the forest” — meaning they died, sacrificing themselves so the younger people would have more food.
Even though the Navy’s written history conflicts with the Tlingit oral tradition, the Navy defers to the tribe’s account “out of respect for the long-lasting impacts these tragic incidents had on the affected clans,” said Leinenveber, the Navy spokesperson.
Tlingit leaders were so stunned when Navy officials told them, during a Zoom call in May, that the apology would finally be forthcoming that no one spoke for five minutes, Johnson said.
Eunice James, of Juneau, a descendant of Tith Klane, said she hopes the apology helps her family and the entire community heal. She expects his presence at the ceremony.
“Not only his spirit will be there, but the spirit of many of our ancestors, because we’ve lost so many,” she said.
…
In suburban Miami, Kmart’s last ‘Blue Light Specials’ flicker
MIAMI, FLORIDA — The last Kmart on the U.S. mainland sits at the west end of a busy suburban Miami shopping center, quiet and largely ignored.
All around it are thriving chain stores attracting steady streams of customers in sectors where the former box-store chain was once a major player: Marshalls, Hobby Lobby, PetSmart and Dollar Tree.
But at this all-but-last outpost of a company once famed for its “Blue Light Specials,” only an occasional shopper pops in, mostly out of curiosity or nostalgia, then leaves after buying little or nothing.
“I hadn’t seen Kmart in so long,” said Juan de la Madriz, who came to the shopping center on a recent weekday to buy dog food at PetSmart. The architect spotted the Kmart and wondered if he could find a gift for his newborn grandson. He exited 10 minutes later having spent $23 on a stuffed dog and a wooden toy workbench.
“It will be sad if it closes,” he said about the store, “but everything now is on computers.”
The last full-size Kmart in the 50 states closed Sunday in Long Island, New York, making the Miami store — now a fraction of its former size — the last operating in the continental United States. At its peak 30 years ago, Kmart operated about 2,500 locations. Today, four others remain: three in the U.S. Virgin Islands and one in Guam. There is also a website.
Transformco, the Illinois-based holding company that owns Kmart and what’s left of another former retail behemoth, Sears, did not respond to email requests for comment or allow the store manager to speak. The company’s plans for the Miami location are unknown — but there is no indication it will close soon.
The last outpost
If the Miami Kmart were a brand-new mom-and-pop retailer, a shopper might think it could eventually thrive with advertising and a little luck. Kmart long had a reputation for clutter and mess, but this store is immaculate, and the merchandise is precisely stacked and displayed.
The size of a CVS or Walgreens drug store, the branch occupies what was its garden section during its big-box days. A couple years ago, an At Home department store took over the rest of the space.
“Get it all! Must Haves. Wish Fors. Friendly Faces,” the sign next to the door reads.
Halloween and Christmas decorations line the entryway, next to the 30 shopping carts that no one is using. A robotic voice says “Welcome,” as does a cheery employee, one of three spotted in the store. A lone customer checks out the Halloween candy.
Straight ahead are a few dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines and dryers: the appliance department. In the store’s main room, there is a large section of toiletries and diapers, a few hardware essentials and some cleaning and pet supplies. The toy department comprises a couple rows of dolls, action figures, games and squirt guns. Sun dresses, summer tops and sweatshirts make up the small clothing section. Oh, and there are snacks.
Also still present: a recorded voice intoning a once-familiar message over a loudspeaker.
“Attention Kmart shoppers,” it says, announcing that almost all items are on sale.
If there were only customers to hear it, like there used to be.
A fast rise and a slow death
Kmart was founded by the retailer S.S. Kresge Company in Michigan in 1962 and grew quickly, reaching 2,000 stores in 20 years. The company sold almost everything, from clothing to jewelry, TVs to dog food, appliances to toys to sporting goods. By the mid-1980s, it was the nation’s second-largest retailer behind Sears, and there were stores in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The roots of Kmart’s decline were laid during that decade when management bought Waldenbooks, Borders Books, Builders Square, Sports Authority and a stake in OfficeMax, thinking the company needed diversification. They were wrong. By the late 1990s, the company had sold those retailers yet still needed $5 billion in refinancing — the equivalent of $9 billion today.
In 2002, Kmart declared bankruptcy as Walmart and Target devoured its market share. Its website never took off, allowing Amazon to beat it in the e-commerce space. There were executive pay scandals, a purchase by a hedge fund manager who stripped it bare and a disastrous 2005 acquisition of Sears.
Mark Cohen, a former Sears Canada CEO and former director of retail studies at Columbia University’s graduate school of business, said Kmart would have thrived if not for the top executives who ran it into the ground. It could have been Walmart.
“It sold in its heyday things that people continue to buy in large quantities today,” Cohen said. “Kmart went down the drain because it was led by incompetent managers.”
Transformco bought Kmart and Sears out of another bankruptcy in 2019 for $5 billion — its critics say mostly for the stores’ real estate. There were 202 Kmarts remaining.
Over the past five years, the firm has kept closing Kmarts until all that’s left in the states is Miami Store #3074.
Nostalgia does not translate into sales
On the day that de la Madriz dropped in to buy his grandson’s gift, only a few customers trickled in and out of the store every hour.
College students Joey Fernandez and Wilfredo Huayhua spent five minutes inside before leaving empty-handed. They knew about the chain’s near-demise, spotted the store while in the shopping center and went in to reminisce. It seemed small, they said, compared to the Kmarts they remembered.
“We were bummed out — I spent a lot of my childhood at Kmart,” said Fernandez, 18. Still, he might be back — the store has good prices on the facial cleanser he uses.
Teacher Oliver Sequin had been entering Marshalls when he spotted the Kmart. That, too, triggered nostalgia but also reminded him he needed Band-Aids for his 5-year-old son. That was all he purchased.
“I remember when Kmarts were bigger,” Sequin said. “But, to be honest, I like this one better. It is clean and organized, not like they were.”
…
US election key to Latin American economies, says credit rating agency
Mexico city — The fate of Latin American economies, deeply reliant on remittances from the United States, hangs in the balance with the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, Fitch Ratings said on Friday.
Why it’s important
The potential disparity in immigration policies between the Republican and Democratic administrations could significantly affect Central American nations, which are heavily dependent on remittances from the U.S.
Key comment
“Central America is highly vulnerable to U.S. immigration policies, as remittances fund a large component of their economic activity,” said Fitch, a U.S.-based credit rating agency.
In countries like El Salvador and Nicaragua, remittances currently account for more than 30% of their gross domestic product, the ratings agency said, adding that Mexico is also one of the largest recipients of remittances globally, where inflows have steadily increased over the past decade to close to 3.5% of GDP, from 2%.
By the numbers
Remittances to Nicaragua have tripled in the past five years, while those to other countries, specifically El Salvador and Jamaica, have considerably slowed.
A study based on data from the U.S. Current Population Survey showed that a 1% increase in the country’s household earnings results in a 0.2% to 0.3% increase in remittances sent abroad.
Context
The U.S. elections could usher in changes in immigration policies, with Donald Trump’s campaign showing a willingness to restrict border crossings and increase deportations, while the potential Kamala Harris administration would aim to pass a bipartisan law to reform the asylum process and limit immigration parole.
Policy changes could significantly affect migrants and the Central American economies that are heavily dependent on the money they send back home from the United States.
…
NASA astronaut hospitalized upon return from extended stay in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A NASA astronaut was taken to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton, the space agency said Friday.
A SpaceX capsule carrying three Americans and one Russian parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station at midweek. The capsule was hoisted onto the recovery ship where the four astronauts had routine medical checks.
Soon after splashdown, a NASA astronaut had a “medical issue” and the crew was flown to a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, for additional evaluation “out of an abundance of caution,” the space agency said in a statement.
The astronaut, who was not identified, was in stable condition and remained at the hospital as a “precautionary measure,” NASA said.
The space agency said it would not share details about the astronaut’s condition, citing patient privacy.
The other three astronauts were discharged and returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
It can take days or even weeks for astronauts to readjust to gravity after living in weightlessness for several months.
The astronauts should have been back two months ago. But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back empty in September because of safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.
SpaceX launched the four — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin — in March. Barratt, the only space veteran going into the mission, acknowledged the support teams back home that had “to replan, retool and kind of redo everything right along with us … and helped us to roll with all those punches.”
Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission went from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. Those four will remain up there until February.
The space station is now back to its normal crew size of seven — four Americans and three Russians — after months of overflow.
…