On Wednesday, more than two weeks after Alaskans went to the polls, results finally came in the race for Alaska’s sole congressional seat: In an upset, former state Rep. Mary Peltola has defeated two opponents with better funding and name recognition to become the next member of Congress from the state. She will be the first Democrat elected to that seat in nearly 50 years, and only the third Democrat since Alaska became a state. She is also the first Native Alaskan to represent the state in Congress.
Rep. Don Young (R–Alaska) was first elected in 1972, and held the seat continuously until his death in March. In a special election to serve out the rest of Young’s term, Peltola faced two Republicans: former Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, grandson of Young’s predecessor.
This was the first election cycle since Alaska switched to a new voting system using ranked choice voting on the general election ballot. Instead of selecting a single candidate, voters rank candidates by preference; if no candidate wins an outright majority, then the lowest performer is eliminated, and that candidate’s votes are tallied again with their second choice counted first.
Peltola won the first round of voting, but Palin’s and Begich’s combined vote shares totaled nearly 60 percent. One might assume that once Begich, the lower performer, was eliminated, his votes would simply be re-allocated to Palin, who would win.
Instead, only half of Begich’s voters picked Palin as their second choice: Nearly three out of ten chose Peltola second, and another 21 percent did not choose any other candidate. After all second choices were counted, Peltola prevailed over Palin, 52-49.
Palin is unpopular in the state, and criticized ranked choice voting during her campaign. After the results were announced, Palin blamed the new voting system and said that Begich should have simply bowed out.
Given Palin’s unpopularity, it’s entirely possible that she would have lost in a head-to-head match-up against Peltola anyway. But with ranked choice voting, voters are freed up to vote their conscience, rather than whoever they think is most electable, without having to worry about voting for a “spoiler” candidate.
Notably, ranked choice was not the reason it took so long to tally the votes. The sparsely-populated state accepts mail-in ballots up to 10 days after election day, as long as they are postmarked in time.
In a statement after the results were announced, FairVote, a nonprofit which supports ranked choice voting, highlighted a poll showing that 62 percent of Alaskan voters approved of the new system, while 85 percent found it easy to figure out.
Peltola will serve out the rest of Young’s term, which will end in January. She is also running on November’s ballot to serve in the seat in the next term.
Heller explained that public carry could be restricted in so-called “sensitive” places. And Bruen reaffirmed that limitation. Just in case anyone forgot, Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence block-quoted the worst passage from Justice Scalia’s majority opinion. Bruen did not have occasion to define a “sensitive” place. But one specific locale popped up during oral argument.
Justice Barrett asked about banning guns in Times Square on New Year’s Eve:
JUSTICE BARRETT: I mean, I guess it’s about the level of generality, all these questions that Justice Kagan’s asking you or that the Chief asked you, if — if you concede, as I think the historical record requires you to, that states did outlaw guns in sensitive places, can’t we just say Times Square on New Year’s Eve is a sensitive place? Because now we’ve seen, you know, people are on top of each other, we’ve — we’ve had experience with violence, so we’re making a judgment, it’s a sensitive place.
Paul Clement countered that restrictions on guns for New Year’s Eve would be more akin to a time-place-manner restriction:
MR. CLEMENT: So here — here’s what I would suggest, that the right way to think about limiting guns in Times Square on New Year’s Eve is not as a sensitive place but as a time, place, and manner restriction. And that might be a perfectly reasonable time, place, and manner restriction, but I don’t think that’s — the sensitive places doctrine, as I understood it, from — and, obviously, it’s a brief reference in the Heller decision, so I — I may not fully understand it — but I understood that those were certain places where they were just no weapon zones all of the time because of the nature of that institution. And I think it’s probably worth thinking about rallies and Times Square, that there may be restrictions, but they would be done —
Barbara Underwood, the New York Solicitor General, hinted that it would not be enough to ban guns only on New Year’s Eve, because the area is so congested.
MS. UNDERWOOD:Well, essentially . . . it would be very hard in the first instance . . . to specify in advance all the places that ought properly to be understood as sensitive. So it sounds like a very convenient alternative, but, for example, we were talking about Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
Times Square on — when the theater district — when — when — when commerce is in full swing, Times Square almost every night is shoulder-to-shoulder people. So then you — you end up having a very big difficulty in specifying what all the places are that have the characteristics that should make them sensitive.
To no one’s surprise, New York City has banned public carry in Times Square 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And Times Square is not defined how I remember it–roughly a five-block sweep, bordered between Seventh Avenue and Broadway. Wikipedia confirms my understanding:
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent Duffy Square, Times Square is a bowtie-shaped space five blocks long between 42nd and 47th Streets.
(Soon enough, this Wikipedia page will be scrubbed.)
No, New York has selected the area from Ninth to Sixth Avenues, and from 53rd to 40th Streets–a total of three-dozen blocks.
In a statement, the police department said that Times Square was “not just a few streets with bright lights and video screens. It’s a unique, dense, complex space, and the area designated in our rules and the proposed bill reflects that reality.”
At a City Council hearing on Tuesday, Robert Barrows, the executive director of the police department’s legal operations and projects, said that the area would be marked by signs that warn pedestrians that the area is a “gun free zone.”
What about people who live in this area? They will be able to carry. And if you are in a vehicle, you can drive through the area, but your gun must be carried in a locked container and unloaded, and you cannot stop. (Sounds a lot like the rule at issue in New York State Rifle Pistol Association v. New York City). It will be very hard to get cross-town with those rules in effect.
We still do not know if the “campus” of New York University will be a “sensitive” place.
There will be litigation. Maybe the Supreme Court will still care about New York in a few years.
As best as I can tell, the City has mirrored the closings for–you guessed it!–New Year’s Eve, though the gun boundary stops at 51st Street rather than 59th Street (Central Park South). For those who care, Trump Tower (on 57th Street) is outside of Times Square.
It’s like T.G.I. McScratchy’s Goodtime Foodrinkery, where every night is New Year’s Eve!
I grew up in New York City, but never once went to Times Square for the ball drop. That was something only tourists did–much like going to the top of the Empire State Building (still never been!). However, I was in Times Square on December 31, 2013. The American Association of Law Schools held the annual meeting at the Midtown Hilton. But the Marriott Marquis offered a member rate on New Year’s Eve! I couldn’t believe it, so I booked it. The window in my room offered a very obstructed view of Broadway. And no, you couldn’t wait in the lobby bar. All those seats sold for a premium. But around 11:45, I went outside and stood on the street. I couldn’t quite see the ball drop, but I got the experience. Then I quickly rushed back into my warm hotel room. Fun fact: that evening, Circuit Justice Sotomayor issued an emergency stay on the shadow docket to protect the Little Sisters of the Poor from the contraceptive mandate. However, Sotomayor did not issue an emergency stay in the Utah same-sex marriage litigation. There was a flurry of activity that night! And at midnight, Sotomayor dropped the ball! I wrote all about the evening here, and in my second book Unraveled.
On Wednesday, more than two weeks after Alaskans went to the polls, results finally came in the race for Alaska’s sole congressional seat: In an upset, former state Rep. Mary Peltola has defeated two opponents with better funding and name recognition to become the next member of Congress from the state. She will be the first Democrat elected to that seat in nearly 50 years, and only the third Democrat since Alaska became a state. She is also the first Native Alaskan to represent the state in Congress.
Rep. Don Young (R–AK) was first elected in 1972, and held the seat continuously until his death in March. In a special election to serve out the rest of Young’s term, Peltola faced two Republicans: former Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, grandson of Young’s predecessor.
This was the first election cycle since Alaska switched to a new voting system using ranked choice voting on the general election ballot. Instead of selecting a single candidate, voters rank candidates by preference; if no candidate wins an outright majority, then the lowest performer is eliminated, and that candidate’s votes are tallied again with their second choice counted first.
Peltola won the first round of voting, but Palin’s and Begich’s combined vote shares totaled nearly 60 percent. One might assume that once Begich, the lower performer, was eliminated, his votes would simply be re-allocated to Palin, who would win.
Instead, only half of Begich’s voters picked Palin as their second choice: Nearly three out of ten chose Peltola second, and another 21 percent did not choose any other candidate. After all second choices were counted, Peltola prevailed over Palin, 52-49.
Palin is unpopular in the state, and criticized ranked choice voting during her campaign. After the results were announced, Palin blamed the new voting system and said that Begich should have simply bowed out.
Given Palin’s unpopularity, it’s entirely possible that she would have lost in a head-to-head match-up against Peltola anyway. But with ranked choice voting, voters are freed up to vote their conscience, rather than whoever they think is most electable, without having to worry about voting for a “spoiler” candidate.
Notably, ranked choice was not the reason it took so long to tally the votes. The sparsely-populated state accepts mail-in ballots up to 10 days after election day, as long as they are postmarked in time.
In a statement after the results were announced, FairVote, a nonprofit which supports ranked choice voting, highlighted a poll showing that 62 percent of Alaskan voters approved of the new system, while 85 percent found it easy to figure out.
Peltola will serve out the rest of Young’s term, which will end in January. She is also running on November’s ballot to serve in the seat in the next term.
Former Trump administration official Kash Patel said that the Justice Department did not redact his name in its Mar-a-Lago affidavit for political purposes and is trying to “silence” him.
Last week, a U.S. magistrate judge ordered the release of the Department of Justice (DOJ) affidavit that was used to obtain an FBI search warrant of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Much of the document and names were redacted, but Patel’s was left unredacted.
Reacting to the DOJ’s decision, Patel told Just The News that the agency “intentionally decided to politicize this affidavit for many reasons.”
“But one, which I wasn’t even expecting them to do was put my name out there, it added absolutely no value and violated every procedure at the Department of Justice in relation to protecting parties and people’s names,” he said in a recent interview.
It’s not clear why the DOJ chose not to keep Patel’s name covered up. The only other person identified by name is longtime Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the head of the House Oversight Committee who was told by the National Archives about materials that were obtained earlier this year from Mar-a-Lago. The Epoch Times has contacted the agency for comment.
That was done “for a political effect, because they wanted to try to silence me and President Trump and everybody else, and get the mainstream media to threaten me, which it has done,” said Patel, a former National Security Council and Pentagon official.
Earlier this month, DOJ officials argued against releasing the affidavit and claimed that doing so would protect the integrity of their investigation while saying it would also prevent witnesses from coming forward.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the same judge who signed off on the FBI search warrant, asked prosecutors to submit a redacted version. Reinhart also released the warrant and property receipt days before, which showed that FBI agents took allegedly classified materials from Trump’s Florida residence.
According to World Bank data analyzed by Statista, countries heavily in debt to China are mostly located in Africa, but can also be found in Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, as the new preferred lender to low-income countries, China now holds 37 percent of these nations’ debt. Just 24 percent of the countries’ bilateral debt comes from the rest of the world in 2022.
The “New Silk Road” project, which finances the construction of port, rail and land infrastructure across the globe, has created much debt to China for participating countries. At the end of 2020, of the 97 countries for which data was available, Pakistan ($77.3 billion of external debt to China), Angola (36.3 billion), Ethiopia (7.9 billion), Kenya (7.4 billion) and Sri Lanka (6.8 billion) held the biggest debts to China. The countries with the biggest debt burdens in relative terms were Djibouti and Angola, followed by the Maldives and Laos, which has just opened a debt-laden railway line to China. The President of the World Bank, David Malpass, called the level of debt many countries once again hold “unsustainable” in January.
Chinese loans have higher interest rates than those from international institutions like the International Monetary Fund or The World Bank or bilateral loans from Paris Club countries, and also have shorter repayment windows. Their setup is closer to commercial loans concerning their conditions of repayment, confidentiality as well as their objectives of funding specific infrastructure projects instead of pursuing development goals in general.
The Covid-19 pandemic has now complicated the already difficult repayment of Chinese loans even more. According to the Financial Times, the country had to renegotiate loans worth $52 billion in 2020 and 2021 – more than three times the amount that met this fate in the two previous years. One such case was Sri Lanka – also among China’s biggest debtors – which in May was the first Asian country in two decades to default on its debt.
An FBI official who has been accused of blocking an investigation into President Joe Biden’s son stepped down this month, lawyers representing the official confirmed to The Epoch Times on Aug. 31.
Timothy Thibault “voluntarily retired” and “was not fired, not forced to retire, and not asked to retire,” lawyers with Morrison & Foerster LLP said in an emailed statement.
Thibault, an assistant special agent in charge at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, was “escorted” out of the office on Aug. 26, the Washington Times reported. Thibault was “walked out of the FBI,” CBS reported. Both outlets cited anonymous officials.
Thibault turned in his security badge and “walked with two long-time special agent friends through the field office to finish processing his paperwork,” Thibault’s lawyers said. “He walked out of the building by himself. Claims to the contrary are false.”
Thibault was eligible for retirement after working for over 30 years for the government and he informed his bosses about a month before his retirement about his intention to retire, his lawyers say.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
Mark Lyttle, a U.S. prosecutor for nearly 17 years and a White House lawyer during the Trump administration, offered praise for Thibault in a statement released by the former official’s counsel. “Agent Thibault spent his career rooting out corruption with integrity and honesty. I am proud to have worked with him and to call him my friend and trusted colleague,” Lyttle, now in private practice, said.
Thibault has come under fire in recent months after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised concerns about his social media posts, including one that described former President Donald Trump as “a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.”
Whistleblowers from within the bureau later told Grassley that the FBI gained information in 2020 about “criminal financial and related activity” carried out by Hunter Biden, the son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The FBI opened an assessment before the 2020 election but a team from the FBI headquarters used the assessment to “improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation” and caused the bureau’s investigation on Hunter Biden “to cease,” Grassley told FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, citing the whistleblowers.
When additional derogatory information about Hunter Biden came to light, Thibault “allegedly ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required by FBI,” Grassley said. FBI officials, including Thibault, then allegedly tried to “improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future.”
‘False Allegations’
Thibault’s lawyers, who have been retained on a pro bono basis, say Thibault believes he did not violate the Hatch Act with his social media posts.
The alleged violations of the law are being investigated by the Office of Special Counsel, the lawyers revealed.
“Mr. Thibault is cooperating with that investigation, urges the Office to complete its review, and expects to be fully exonerated,” they said.
Regarding claims that Thibault took certain actions for partisan reasons, the lawyers said Thibault “welcomes any investigation of these false allegations, regardless of his retirement.”
“He firmly believes that any investigation will conclude that his supervision, leadership and decision making were not impacted by political bias or partisanship of any kind. He is confident that all of his decisions were consistent with the FBI’s highest standards for ethics and integrity,” they said.
Wray, a Trump appointee, said earlier in August that the FBI is investigating Hunter Biden with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware. He said the investigation is being run out of the bureau’s Baltimore Field Office, which is in Maryland.
Thibault did not supervise the investigation into Hunter Biden, the former official’s lawyers say, and Thibault “was not involved in any decisions related to any laptop that may be at issue in that investigation, and he did not seek to close the investigation.” Thibault was also not involved in the search warrant that agents executed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort this month, according to the lawyers.
Grassley, upon hearing reports that Thibault was no longer with the FBI, said in a statement that Thibault’s “blatant partisanship undermined the work and reputation of the FBI” and said that “the effort to revive the FBI’s credibility can’t stop with his exit.”
For cash-strapped renters crushed by the worst inflationary environment in four decades as real wages tumble, personal savings wiped out, and credit cards maxed out, we have found the top ten cities to avoid renting a one-bedroom apartment.
The Zumper National Rent Index shows rising shelter costs for a one-bedroom apartment are not sustainable for the working poor. The median national one-bedroom rent for August was $1,486, up 11.8% over the same month last year, surpassing July’s record high.
Readers may recall we have focused on New York City’s hot rental market for apartments that continues to set “record number of records.” In the metro area, one-bedroom rents are up a staggering 40% year-over-year. A two-bedroom apartment is up 47%. Across all boroughs, Manhattan had the highest rent, climbing to another record high of $4,214, up 27% over last year.
So it is no surprise that NYC tops the list with the most expensive rent. San Francisco, San Jose, Boston, and San Diego rounded out the list of the five most costly rents in the nation.
Renters should avoid locking in rent contracts in super expensive metro areas because the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening could spark turmoil in the economy later this year, if not next. This would undoubtedly mean rent prices would have to readjust.
Gingrich: Media Won’t Acknowledge Republican Wave Coming In November
Newt Gingrich thinks that the leftist media may be deliberately distorting what he says is evidence that a red wave is coming in November.
In a Tuesday Fox News op-ed, the former Speaker of the House said that Republicans are particularly well positioned to regain control of the Senate in a ‘mass repudiation of President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ policies.
The media, meanwhile, is “at best misunderstanding – and at worst deliberately distorting” the evidence, Gingrich says.
For starters, it’s a midterm in a new president’s term. History tells us these elections almost always cut against the president’s party. Add to this that 74 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction thanks to out-of-control spending, 40-year high inflation, rising prices, surging violence, an unpoliced border, and a host of lesser crises.
The Democrat-led Congress has a 79 percent disapproval rating, according to Statista. And Biden is hovering at 53 percent disapproval in an average of polls of likely voters, according to FiveThirtyEight (many polls are much worse for Biden).
But set these broad indicators aside for a moment. -Newt Gingrich
Gingrich notes that the “left-wing media” is pointing to New York’s 19th Congressional District special election as a bellwether for November – with Democrat Pat Ryan eeking out a 2% win over Republican Marc Molinaro – however to suggest that this portends Democratic momentum is “either ignorant or dishonest,” as the NY 19th District is ‘reliably blue’ – with the 2020 Democratic candidate winning by 11.6%.
In short, Ryan’s win was actually a terrible showing for the Democrat, who should have won by far more.
Gingrich continues: A 2-percentage-point win here should make Democrats nervous – not jubilant. The real lesson from the NY-19 race is for Republicans. President Trump earned 178,000 votes in the district in 2020. Although it was redrawn before this race, Molinaro got only 63,000 votes. Had Molinaro run a more aggressive campaign that focused on big national issues, I suspect he could have reached more of the potentially 115,000 Trump voters who weren’t motivated to turnout for the special election. This would have given him the win.
The media is also obsessing over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent comment that the Senate elections would be tough for Republicans. In all fairness to McConnell, his super PAC has since poured tens-of-millions of dollars into these races – and he clearly intends to win them. At the same time, pundits and reporters are ignoring the deeply positive, optimistic attitudes from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee, and a host of other Republican Senate-focused groups. The media is also ignoring the massive Republican voter enthusiasm. We have seen enormous Republican turnout and voter registrations across the country.
The Joe Biden administration is concerned about Indian involvement in Russia’s massive war games, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday. Roughly 50,000 troops from several countries will participate in the “Vostok” military games held in far eastern Russia.
Responding to a question about Indian involvement in the Russian-hosted exercises, Jean-Pierre said, “So, the United States has concerns about any country exercising with Russia while Russia wages a unprovoked, brutal war against Ukraine.” She continued, “But, of course, every participating country will make its own decisions. And I’ll leave it at that.”
New Delhi is participating in the Vostok 2022 war games hosted by Moscow from September 1-7. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 50,000 troops and 5,000 weapons units, including 140 aircraft and 60 warships partake in the drills. Soldiers from China, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria, and Tajikistan are also joining the exercises that will stretch into the Sea of Japan.
At the same time, India is involved in the Pitch Black 2022 war games. Hosted by Australia, the military exercises include 17 nations, over 100 aircraft and 2,500 soldiers. All four members of the anti-China The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or ‘The Quad’ are engaging in the drills, alongside Washington.
While Jean-Pierre expressed concern, the White House stopped short of saying it would take action against New Delhi. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, President Joe Biden pledged to isolate the Russian economy.
However, Washington’s economic war against Moscow has failed as Wall Street analysts are now predicting a more robust Russian economy.
The Kremlin has weathered its isolation from the US and many of its Western allies by selling more to Beijing, New Delhi and Ankara. This year, Turkey has doubled its Russian oil imports. To bypass American sanctions, Russian diamond traders have recently adopted the Indian Rupee.
Royal Caribbean To Be First In Cruise Industry To Equip Ships With “Kickass” Starlink Internet
Royal Caribbean Group announced it would be the first in the cruise industry to equip its vessels with SpaceX’s Starlink — making it possible for those who work remotely to enjoy a cruise around the Caribbean with high-speed, low-latency internet. The standard internet on cruise ships is awful and would make anyone absolutely frustrated trying to conduct a video conferencing call.
The “high-speed, low-latency connectivity” will allow “for a better onboard experience for guests and crew fleetwide,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement.
Installation on Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises ships and all new vessels for each brand should be completed in 1Q23.
“This technology will provide game-changing internet connectivity onboard our ships, enhancing the cruise experience for guests and crew alike. It will improve and enable more high-bandwidth activities like video streaming as well as activities like video calls,” said Jason Liberty, president and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean.
SpaceX Vice President of Starlink Sales Jonathan Hofeller said Starlink on cruise ships “will make their passengers’ getaways even more luxurious.”
SpaceX’s founder, Elon Musk, tweeted: “Kickass Internet connection coming Royal Caribbean ships soon!”
In June, Royal Caribbean asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clear the way for high-speed internet from space via Starlink’s 3,000 low-orbit satellites.
Besides cruise ships, several airline carriers (read: here) have been discussing Starlink service, though rival satellite internet operators, including Dish Network and Viasat, have filed complaints with the FCC over interference concerns with Starlink’s sprawling mesh satellite network.
So will so-called ‘digital nomads’ now sail around the world on Royal Caribbean cruise ships early next year when the high-speed internet option becomes available?
