Voters in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District head to the polls today to pick a replacement for former GOP Rep. Tim Murphy, who resigned in disgrace last year after it came out that the (married and supposedly "pro-life") congressman had reportedly urged his mistress to have an abortion. Though this seat is extremely red, Democrats are excited about their candidate, former prosecutor Conor Lamb, while Republicans have desperately spent millions to prop up theirs, state Rep. Rick Saccone. We'll be live-blogging all the results, so head over to Daily Kos Elections the moment polls close at 8 PM ET for our coverage. You'll also want to bookmark David Jarman's county-by-county guide to interpreting the returns as they come in. See you tonight! |
Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Troubled Times:
• Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to sue oil companies for “murder”:
During an interview with Politico’s “Off Message” podcast at the South by Southwest festival, Arnold Schwarzenegger argued that fossil fuel companies made a perfect target for tobacco-style class action lawsuits, as pollution kills 7 million to 9 million people a year. “We’re talking to law firms to go and do exactly the same thing they did with the tobacco industry, ” he said. And though Schwarzenegger didn’t clarify the details, he assured the crowd that he planned to back up his words.
“We’re going to go after them, and we’re going to be in there like an Alabama tick,” Schwarzenegger promised (borrowing one of Jesse Ventura’s lines from Predator).
• Scientists disagree with each other over Arctic warming’s link to weather extremes:
IT’S THAT TIME of the year again, when massive winter storms lash the eastern United States and your uncle posts on Facebook about how it proves climate change is a hoax. After all, why would you still need a good coat on a warming planet?
The fallacy is, of course, that weather is not the same as climate—though the two are intertwined in sometimes surprising ways. And one controversial theory argues that weirdly enough, it’s a warming arctic that’s causing extreme winter weather in the eastern US. A new study out today in Nature Communications purports to bolster that argument, but the idea has sharply divided climate scientists. Arguing aside, though, the debate might be great for public understanding of climate change.
• Brainwrap decides to deliver information and analysis of ACA full-time: Charles Gaba (known to us here at dKos as “Brainwrap”) is still analyzing and educating people about the ACA and all things healthcare policy-related at ACASignups.net. After four years at his full-time “hobby”, he's finally making an official career out of it. He could use your help via Patreon or through a one-time donation.
• Hip-Hop star of the ‘90s Craig Mack dead at 46.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Manufacturing still provides a pay advantage for workers, but it’s eroding:
[T]he notion that manufacturing is a source of good jobs is being challenged most prominently by a 2017 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, arguing, “The assertion that manufacturing as a whole provides better jobs than the rest of the economy is increasingly difficult to defend” (Levinson 2017, 9). Specifically, CRS claims that the manufacturing compensation premium—the additional pay a manufacturing worker earns relative to a comparable nonmanufacturing worker—has disappeared. The McKinsey report also paints a picture of a workforce under siege, with offshoring, cost-cutting, and plant closures squeezing wages and benefits, particularly for many of the temporary or staffing intermediary workers in manufacturing.
• Finland’s government invests $1.04 billion in Nokia: The government-backed investment arm Solidium has bought a 3.3% stake in Nokia. The collapse of the company’s mobile phone business caused economic trouble for the whole nation. Now that Finland has started to recover, it want the same for Nokia. The companyNokia 6,300 people in Finland and has worldwide workforce of 102,800. Solidium won’t seek a board seat at May’s shareholder meeting, but it could take a seat sometime later.
• Federal court gives a smackdown to Scott Pruitt’s EPA over smog rules. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled that the agency must move forward in carrying out the 2015 Ozone Standards and in designating areas in the country that do not meet them. The deadline for EPA to complay is April 30. Pruitt “has failed to perform a non-discretionary duty imposed” to designate areas that fail to meet the ozone standards set for levels of ozone, which is the main component in smog, the court order said. Last June, Pruitt announced he was delaying implementation of the rule for a year beyond its October 1, 2018 deadline. Consequently, 16 states attorneys general and an environmental coalition sued to force the EPA to implement the ozone standard on time. Of the ruling, Environmental Defense Fund attorney Rachel Fullmer said: “It will help us protect families and communities by ensuring that EPA is moving forward to implement health-based protections to reduce smog.”
• Electric, self-flying, vertical takeoff taxis are coming to New Zealand.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Wow. We keep having "Wow, what a day!" days. Rex is now an ex, and other staffing turmoil. House Intel Committee calls it quits on Trump-Russia. Plus, Armando & Chris Reeves give us a peek inside the DNC's process for setting the 2020 ground rules.
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