peppertree
peppertree's JournalDemocrat Bourdeaux flips Georgia House district
Source: AP
Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux has flipped a suburban Atlanta congressional district, defeating Republican Rich McCormick.
Counting of absentee ballots and in-person votes cast early continued long past election night, forcing a tense wait before the race could be called.
Bourdeaux, 50, had come close to winning in 2018, falling fewer than 500 votes short of defeating Republican incumbent Rob Woodall in that race.
Woodall didn’t seek another term in the district northeast of Atlanta.
Bourdeaux is a college professor who previously worked in government. She emphasized expanded health care in her campaign and used the momentum she built two years ago to push past McCormick, an emergency room physician and Marine veteran making his first-ever bid for office.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-stacey-abrams-georgia-70bae5e37036c65f6da0db832871f2e4
Congresswoman-elect Carolyn Bourdeaux: Second time's the charm
Ritchie Torres, Mondaire Jones become 1st openly gay Black members of Congress
Source: Yahoo! News
Both gents are Democrats from New York. And both Torres and Jones made history on Election Night.
Democratic New Yorkers Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones have become the first openly gay Black men elected to the U.S. Congress.
Torres, 32, who is Afro-Latino, has been a member of New York City’s city council for seven years.
Jones, 33, won the 17th district, representing Rockland County, which includes parts of Westchester County in New York’s suburbs. The district’s previous representative, Democrat Nita Lowey, retired.
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/ritchie-torres-mondaire-jones-become-134739542.html
Congressmen-elect Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres: Making history
Dixville Notch, NH, was divided in 2016. This year was a Biden sweep.
One of the first communities in the nation to reveal its election results voted unanimously for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden early Tuesday, marking only the second time a candidate has swept the tiny New Hampshire hamlet in its 60-year tradition of midnight voting.
All five voters in Dixville Notch, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, gathered at the now-closed Balsams Resort to become some of the first people in the country to formally submit their decisions.
The residents drop paper ballots into a wooden box, and the votes are counted by hand.
The only other time the community’s voters have been in agreement was when all nine chose Republican Richard Nixon over Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960, the tradition’s first year.
At: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/this-tiny-nh-hamlet-was-divided-in-2016-this-year-was-a-biden-sweep/ar-BB1aETWY
Tanner Tillotson writes the results of ballots cast in Dixville Notch, N.H., shortly after midnight on Tuesday.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden carried all five of the hamlet's votes - the first sweep there since 1960.
Proud Boy Trump supporter threatens to bomb North Dakota voting center
Police in Dickinson, North Dakota arrested Anthony Raymond, a 33-year-old self-proclaimed “Proud Boy” — a Trump-loving, anti-feminist men’s group whose members never masturbate and attend white supremacist rallies — for threatening to bomb a polling station in Stark County.
Raymond reportedly sent an anonymous email mentioning his plan to The Dickinson Press, a local newspaper. The police then tracked him down by figuring out his IP address through the email he sent.
They arrested him soon after. He’s now facing felony charges.
At: https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/10/proud-boy-trump-supporter-threatens-to-bomb-north-dakota-voting-center/
Proud boy: Dickinson, ND, bomb threat culprit Anthony Raymond
Alamance County voter rally ends with pepper spray, arrests
A get-out-the vote rally in swing state North Carolina on Saturday ended with police using pepper spray on some participants and making several arrests.
Multiple people were arrested outside Alamance County's courthouse and police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, news outlets reported.
Lindsay Ayling, a graduate student and anti-racism activist who participated in the rally, told The Associated Press police used tear gas indiscriminately and without reason on the crowd, including on children.
“The police were looking for excuses to use pepper spray and arrest members of the crowd," she said.
Police did not immediately comment, but the department said it would hold a news conference Saturday afternoon to discuss the arrests.
The “I Am Change” event, a racially diverse group of about 200 people marching to the polls, was organized by Rev. Greg Drumwright, a Burlington native who leads the the Citadel Church in Greensboro, according to his website.
At: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article246861942.html
Marcher to North Carolina polls were attacked by Alamance County and Graham, NC, police ordering them to move onto the sidewalk and spraying pepper spray in their direction.
At least one senior citizen suffered convulsions, and two children threw up.
Firefighters hope for a break in the wind as 2 wildfires burn in California's Orange County
Source: USA Today
Tens of thousands of residents in California's Orange County remained under evacuation orders Tuesday as two wildfires continued to threaten upscale neighborhoods.
As morning came, the Silverado Fire had consumed 17.5 square miles with only 5% containment, prompting an expansion of the evacuation orders to include sections of Mission Viejo, the Orange County Fire Authority reported.
About 70,000 Irvine residents were under evacuation order and another 6,000 in nearby Lake Forest.
To the east, the Blue Ridge Fire has burned about 12.5 square miles with no containment as of Tuesday morning. Fire officials said they were still trying to get an estimate of the number of people evacuated.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/27/silverado-blue-ridge-fires-thousands-under-evacuation-orange-county/3748272001/
The Silverado Fire has forced the evacuation of thousands of Irvine, CA, residents.
Colombia reaches 1 Million confirmed Coronavirus cases
Colombia reached 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, becoming the second country in Latin America to report that number in less than a week.
The nation of 51 million saw cases peak in August and has seen a decline since but still continues to register around 8,000 new infections a day.
Colombia has become the eighth country to hit 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases. The others are the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, France, Spain and Argentina - according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Overall, Latin America continues to register some of the highest caseloads, diagnosing more than 100,000 confirmed infections each day, though the World Health Organization reports that Europe is now seeing even larger numbers as a second virus wave strikes.
At: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-10-24/colombia-reaches-1-million-confirmed-coronavirus-cases
Health workers disinfect each other after taking blood samples during a COVID-19 seroprevalance test study in Medellín, Colombia.
The country became the eighth in the world to reach 1 million confirmed cases yesterday. The pandemic has thus far claimed over 30,000 lives in the country — the world's 11th highest death toll.
'An End to the Chapter of Dictatorship': Chileans Vote to Draft a New Constitution
Voters in Chile overwhelmingly approved a bid to scrap the charter inherited from Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, a move that could set a new course for the country.
On Sunday, just over a year after the massive demonstrations swept the nation, Chileans voted to scrap the dictatorship-era document and write a new one — a process that could transform the politics of a country that has long been regarded as one of the most stable and prosperous in Latin America.
The referendum was headed for a landslide victory; with 62 percent of the votes counted, 78 percent were cast in favor of a new Constitution, and it was leading in almost every part of the country.
Amalia Gómez, 66, barely gets by on a $125 monthly pension and picks up seamstress jobs to compensate. She and many others like her see a new Constitution as a path to better lives and a more equitable country for future generations.
“Why not, if we are a country rich in minerals, fish, agriculture?” she said. “Why can’t we use those resources to our benefit, for our education and health?”
At: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/world/americas/chile-constitution-plebiscite.html
A Santiago crowd celebrates today's landslide victory in favor of replacing Chile's 1980 constitution, enacted by the late fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Today's referendum - the product of a year of protests sparked by meager wages and pensions in a country with Latin America's highest per capita GDP - begins a process whose next step is an April 11 election for a constitutional convention.
Polish President Andrzej Duda tests positive for COVID-19
Polish President Andrzej Duda says he feels well despite testing positive for the coronavirus, and he apologized Saturday to everyone who must quarantine because they had contact with him.
Duda, 48, said in a recording published on Twitter that he was experiencing no COVID-19 symptoms “but unfortunately, the test result is absolutely unambiguous.”
Duda’s diagnosis comes amid a huge surge in confirmed new cases of COVID-19 and virus-related deaths in Poland, a nation of 38 million that saw very low infection rates in the spring.
Poland on Saturday reported 13,628 new confirmed cases and a record daily number of COVID-19 deaths, 179. The daily case count was the nation's second-highest of the pandemic after a record number set Friday.
Social tensions are also growing in the country.
Police used pepper spray Saturday on protesters angry over new virus restrictions, a group that includes entrepreneurs, far-right politicians, football fans, virus deniers and vaccine opponents. The protesters, many wearing no protective masks, violated a limit on public gatherings.
Duda joins a handful of world leaders who have contracted the virus, including U.S. President Donald Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
At: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poland-president-andrzej-duda-tests-positive-covid-19/
Polish President Andrzej Duda and friend.
Duda joins a handful of world leaders who have contracted the virus, including U.S. President Donald Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Budget deficit hits record $3.1 trillion
The federal budget deficit soared to a record $3.13 trillion in the 2020 fiscal year, official figures showed on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic fueled enormous government spending while tax receipts plunged as households and businesses struggled with economic shutdowns.
The shortfall underscores the long-term economic challenge facing the United States as it tries to emerge from the sharpest downturn since the Great Depression.
The deficit — the gap between what the U.S. spends and what it earns through tax receipts and other revenue — was $2 trillion more than what the White House’s budget forecast in February. It was also three times as large as the $984 billion deficit in the 2019 fiscal year.
The federal government spent $6.55 trillion in 2020 (up 47.3%), a large portion of which can be attributed to the $2.2 trillion relief legislation that Congress passed in March.
The government brought in $3.42 trillion in tax revenue this year, a slight decrease from 2019.
At: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/16/business/us-economy-coronavirus
President Donald Trump speaks during a recent press conference, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, OMB Budget Director Russell Vought and Dr. Scott Atlas listen.
The federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP (15%), reached its highest level since the 20% recorded in 1945.
