Today is
Saturday November 23, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — The final doors are being knocked, ads are blaring and candidates are making a last pitch to voters. Even with the high-energy final push, the races for control of Congress are at a stalemate, essentially a toss-up for the House and fight to the finish for the Senate.
The outcome of Tuesday’s election will shape the country’s future, determining whether the new White House has allies or skeptics on Capitol Hill — or faces a divided Congress like this past session, which has been among the most tumultuous and unproductive in modern times.
As voters assess their presidential options between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, they also are sizing up who will represent them in Congress.
“This is why I’m an independent,†said voter Gary Motta of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, who isn’t happy with either choice for president, as he showed up at an early Sunday morning event for Republican Kevin Coughlin, who is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes.
The struggle for control of Congress has gone on for months. Candidates have tussled over the big issues — the economy, the border, reproductive health care and the future of democracy — but also over Congress itself, which had a chaotic session as the GOP-led House ousted its speaker and barely fended off government shutdowns.
This is the first presidential election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and many Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s White House win over Trump are up for reelection.
Republican candidates, many backed by the former president, are finding themselves having to answer for him on several fronts. Among them is the decision by the Supreme Court, with three justices who were nominated by Trump, that ended the right to abortion access
Democrats face tough questions over the Biden-Harris record on the U.S.-Mexico border and on inflation during their time at the White House.
Most of the closely contested House campaigns are being waged beyond the presidential swing states, including in New York and California, where Republican Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted as speaker and then left Congress, had made inroads in his home state. Democrats under New York’s Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s House leader, are now trying to win them back.
Starting Saturday, California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the Democratic caucus chairman, is making a nine-stop swing through the Golden State to win back seats.
“There’s a lot of energy out there,†said Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in an interview from Omaha, Nebraska, a surprising battleground, after a swing through New York. “We’re just working hard to get out the vote.â€
She said there are “tons of volunteers on the ground, lots of energy, people very, very focused. They understand there’s a lot at stake.â€
With the ever-escalating world of campaign fundraising, this election year stands apart: A whopping $2.5 billion is being spent to win the Senate and almost $1 billion on the House.
The Senate is the Republicans’ to lose, a coda to the long stewardship of their party leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He recruited wealthy Republican candidates, many backed by Trump, to face off against a half-dozen incumbent Democrats facing tough reelections.
In Montana, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is in one of the most competitive races in the country that could flip control to Republicans. But a half-dozen more Senate races including in the “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, are as tight as the presidential race in those states.
But late-breaking shifts are injecting new uncertainty in other Senate races, putting Sen. Ted Cruz on defense in Republican-heavy Texas where Democratic Rep. Colin Allred has seen a surge of energy, including from Harris’ star-studded rally in Houston with hometown hero Beyoncé. Nebraska independent Dan Osborne has caught Republicans off guard in Nebraska as he tries to unseat GOP Sen. Deb Fischer.
Oher Republican Senate candidates have stumbled.
In Ohio, Republican Bernie Moreno, who is facing Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, made comments critical of suburban women making abortion access a priority issue. Republican Tim Sheehy made derogatory remarks about Native Americans, a key voting bloc in his race against Tester in Montana.
As Republicans have outsourced their get-out-the-vote efforts to new groups, including Elon Musk’s America PAC, the campaign committees have had to stand up their own to ensure that people vote.
Davide Cuigini, part of the Young Republicans working to turn out the vote for Moreno last weekend in Ohio, said, “Republicans are finally early voting, so that’s gong to make a difference.â€
Yet the energy on the Democratic side grew quickly once Harris replaced Biden on the Democratic ticket over the summer..
Democrat Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland, who could make history alongside Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester as Black women in the Senate, hosted former President Barack Obama last week. Alsobrooks is running against Larry Hogan, a popular former governor.
In the House, Democrats have seen several races shift their way, according to nonpartisan analysts. But others, in Alaska and an open seat in Michigan, tilt toward Republicans. Two of the House’s longest serving lawmakers are in the fights of their political lives in Ohio and California.
Still, a internal DCCC memo showed 21 of 25 contested seats still close, one week from the election.
There are also unusual battlegrounds, including what Nebraskans call the “blue dot†around Omaha, where Republican Rep. Don Bacon faces a challenge from Democrat Tony Vargas.
The outcome of the races will be a test of House leadership under Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. He said at a recent stop near Akron, Ohio, that with the GOP’s “winsome warriors†as candidates, he knows they will win.
Jeffries, in line to become House speaker if Democrats take control, said he has decided to ” remain calm, ” even if the possibility of unexpected events keeps him up at night.
If the two chambers do in fact flip party control, as is possible, it would be rare.
Records show that if Democrats take the House and Republicans take the Senate, it would be the first time that the chambers of Congress have both flipped to opposing political parties.
“This election is a very big deal,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, campaigning for a fellow Democrat in one of his state’s House races.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s deep partisan divisions extend to trust in the vote tallies for this year’s election, as a new poll finds that Republicans are much more skeptical than Democrats that ballots will be counted accurately.
Voters generally show more distrust toward nationwide voting results compared to the tallies done by their own local election offices, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About half of Republican registered voters have “a great deal†or “quite a bit†of trust that the vote will be accurately counted by their local election officials and around 4 in 10 say the same about the vote count in their state, but only around one-quarter have at least “quite a bit†of trust in the nationwide count.
Republicans voters’ overall level of trust in all three, however, is lower than it is among Democratic voters. Roughly three-quarters of Democrats say they have at least “quite a bit†of confidence that votes will be counted accurately nationwide, in their state or by their local election officials.
This year’s election marks the first presidential race since former President Donald Trump began a campaign of lies about a stolen 2020 election — a narrative that has undermined public confidence in election results among a wide swath of conservative voters, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.
Election experts have warned that Trump may be laying the groundwork to once again challenge the election if he loses.
David Farrington, a 78-year-old conservative in Fort Worth, Texas, said he distrusts mail-in ballots and ballot drop boxes, both common targets for claims of voter fraud and election conspiracies attempting to sow distrust in election results.
“It’s not the vote count that I’m worried about,” Farrington said. “I have every faith in all the precincts and their ability to count the ballots that are there. But the ballots — we don’t know if they’re legitimate or not.â€
Conversely, Ruth Edwards, a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher in Tampa, Florida, said she has “never seen evidence that elections are rigged.â€
“It’s just people who are upset about their candidate losing who are now claiming it’s rigged with no evidence,†said Edwards, a Democrat. “It’s ridiculous.â€
Voters overall are more likely to believe that votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately by their local election officials or in their state than nationwide, according to the poll. About 6 in 10 voters have “a great deal†or “quite a bit†of confidence that votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately by their local election officials or in their state, while about half say this about votes counted nationwide.
About one-quarter in each case have “a moderate amount†of confidence. About 3 in 10 say they have “only a little†or no confidence in the nationwide count, while fewer say that about the tally in their state or by local officials.
Drew Inman, a 31-year-old Republican working in law enforcement in New Jersey, said he is skeptical that votes will be counted accurately at all levels, but especially in counties outside his own.
“I definitely trust my vote to be counted at a local level more than I trust the national vote count,” he said. “… When you go national, there’s a lot more people involved and that can create corruption.â€
While ballots can include races for federal offices such as president or Congress, the U.S. does not run national elections as other countries do. All elections are run by the states and administered by local election offices in thousands of townships, cities and counties.
Election officials have recognized that many skeptical voters tend to point to other jurisdictions with false claims of fraud. Some groups have tried to counter this perception by emphasizing that elections in every state are run at the local level.
“What is difficult is when we have national elections, oftentimes people will maybe throw election professionals under the bus from another state, and that is not helpful,†said Tammy Patrick, a former election official now with the National Association of Election Officials.
Older voters have more faith in the vote count at all levels than younger voters, including the count conducted by local election officials. About half of 18- to 29-year-old voters have at least “quite a bit†of confidence that votes will be counted accurately in their state or by their local election officials, compared to around 7 in 10 voters ages 60 and older.
The gap is smaller for the nationwide vote count, though: About 4 in 10 18- to 29-year-old voters have at least “quite a bit†of confidence, compared to about half of voters ages 60 and older.
Bill Sanchez, a 29-year-old criminal defense attorney in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, said older voters have been watching and participating in the election process for longer, giving them more time to build trust.
“Younger voters have less experience voting and have spent a lot of their lives surrounded by this kind of misinformation that we’re seeing more and more of,†Sanchez said. “… It just sets the base for younger voters to be more distrustful.â€
About 6 in 10 Republicans say people voting who are not eligible is a major problem in U.S. elections, compared to 2 in 10 Democrats. Democrats and Republicans differ most sharply over whether mail ballots that are returned via the U.S. Postal Service or a drop box will be counted accurately. About 6 in 10 Democrats are “extremely†or “very confident†that mail ballots that are returned by these methods will be counted accurately, compared to around 1 in 10 Republicans.
Democrats, meanwhile, are much more concerned about voter suppression than Republicans. About half of Democrats say voter suppression is a major problem, compared to about one-third of Republicans
And about 4 in 10 voters are concerned about other countries tampering with U.S. voting systems or election results, which is down slightly from when the question was last asked in February 2020. This is something that independent voters are at least slightly more likely to be worried about than Democrats or Republicans.
Sanchez, the attorney from Pennsylvania, said he is more concerned about voter suppression than widespread fraud or ballots being miscounted and called for the expansion of early voting and mail ballots to “make voting as accessible as possible.†He also worries about the potential that false claims of voter fraud could incite violence and unrest, and said he hopes election officials’ attempts to inform voters ahead of the election will help.
“There’s a lot of misinformation and disinformation about election security from bad faith actors who are trying to build distrust and take advantage of the fact that people don’t always understand everything about the process,” Sanchez said. “And when we don’t understand things, we end up fearing it.”
SMITH COUNTY — A third person has been charged in connection to the March “cartel-related†kidnapping of a Tyler man. According to our news partner KETK, Brandon Markeith Jeffrey, owner of Mile High Eatery in the Tyler Pounds Airport, is accused of taking part in the kidnapping and was taken into custody on Thursday.
In March, Smith County officials said a man was found safe in the DFW area after being kidnapped from his Tyler driveway. According to an affidavit, his captors, identified as Julio Cesar Cordova and Walybert Eron Cordova-Rascon, demanded $10,000 from the family to return the victim. At the time, the Smith County Sheriff said the kidnapping was “cartel-related.†Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Railroad Administration has announced more than $2.4 billion in railroad grants to help pay for 122 projects nationwide in 41 states and Washington D.C. A large part of the money comes from the 2021 infrastructure law that President Joe Biden pushed for. Last year, the administration handed out $1.4 billion in these rail grants.
Most of the money will go to track and bridge upgrades. But some of the grants will be used to bolster training and explore cleaner-burning alternatives to the diesel railroads have long relied on. Some small railroads will also get help upgrading to more efficient locomotives.
Roughly $1.3 billion of the money will go to 81 projects at smaller short line railroads that often have a harder time investing in major projects. Chuck Baker, president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association trade group, said some of these grants will be transformational for the short line railroads that receive them.
Some of the grants will also help address rail safety concerns that have become prevalent since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 and spilled a cocktail of hazardous chemicals that caught fire. Regulators have urged railroads to improve safety and the industry has undertaken a number of initiatives on its own. But bigger changes that lawmakers proposed after the disastrous derailment have stalled in Congress and little progress has been made in the current election year.
Nearly $1.1 billion of the money will be invested in rural areas.
Projects designed to reduce trespassing will receive $32.79 million. Workforce Development projects are worth $53.59 million. New Intercity Passenger Rail projects will receive $218,581,494. The rest of the money will go to an assortment of project improvements.
TYLER — In response to a troubling increase in threats made against schools across the country and in East Texas, Tyler ISD is reaching out to parents and guardians for their support in fostering a safe school environment. “Making a threat against a school, whether real or fake, is a crime with very serious legal consequences,†stated Acting Tyler ISD Police Chief Destry Walsworth. “These threats not only cause fear among students, staff, and families, but they also divert vital resources away from education and safety efforts.â€
While many of these incidents turn out to be hoaxes, the repercussions can be significant. Law enforcement is often required to allocate substantial time and resources to investigate these threats, which detracts from their essential mission of keeping our community safe. Read the rest of this entry »
AUSTIN (AP) – Texas is clawing back more than $607 million per year in federal funding for special education services, a move local school district officials say will likely worsen already strained budgets for students with disabilities.
The School Health and Related Services (SHARS) program provides hundreds of school districts critical funding for special education services, reimbursing them for counseling, nursing, therapy and transportation services provided to Medicaid-eligible children.
More than 775,000 students receive special education services in Texas, according to the Texas Education Agency. It is not as clear how many of them are eligible for Medicaid, though school district officials say many of the kids who directly benefit from SHARS come from low-income families.
But in the last year, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which manages the program at the state level, began imposing strict limitations on the types of services for which school districts are able to request federal reimbursement. The changes have accumulated into a $607 million slashing to the money school districts typically expect to receive under SHARS per year, according to health agency estimates.
Bewildered by the sudden changes, school district officials and special education advocates say little has been communicated about why these drastic changes are happening.
“We’re seeing an increased number of students that need more and more individualized care,†said Katie Abbott, special education director for a coalition of six East Texas school districts. “And yet, what are we doing?â€
In response to their concerns, Texas has blamed the feds.
A 2017 federal audit report found that Texas was improperly billing for services not allowable under the SHARS program. The report concluded the state would need to return almost $19 million, a fraction of the $607 million currently being left behind. It also required that the Texas health commission work to ensure it was complying with federal guidelines.
Afterwards, the commission submitted “every possible denial and request for the opinion to be overturned†but was unsuccessful, the agency told The Texas Tribune. The recent changes reflected an attempt to bring the state back into compliance, according to the commission.
But federal appeals officers, in a ruling last year, said Texas produced “nothing at all†to dispute investigators’ findings that the state billed for unallowable services. The ruling also condemns the state for attempting to submit evidence after the deadline to do so had already passed.
Further, federal officials dispute the notion that Texas is being required to make certain changes to the SHARS program. In a statement to the Tribune, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made clear that as long as states work within “broad federal parameters,†they have autonomy to make decisions about their programs.
School district officials say Texas has resorted to overcorrecting problems identified by the audit, flouting expectations from the federal government that the state administers the program using the least restrictive means possible.
Many school districts are formally appealing the funding cuts with the state, while other rural districts have decided to exit the SHARS program altogether because of the administrative burden recent changes have created. Those that remain are holding out hope that lawmakers will decide in next year’s legislative session to help fill the financial gaps left in special education services — a lofty expectation for a state with a poor track record in both administering Medicaid and serving students with disabilities.
“We’re talking about our most vulnerable kids,†said Karlyn Keller, division director of Student Solutions and School Medicaid Services for the Texas Association of School Boards. “We can’t afford to continue to make these huge clawbacks in funding when we’ve got kids that need the service.â€
TYLER — Doses of Narcan, the lifesaving nasal spray used to reverse overdoses and effects of fentanyl poisoning, are now available for students and staff of the University of Texas at Tyler. According to our news partner KETK, University officials said they are launching the initiative to make Narcan available on a regular basis in observance of the first Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Month.
“Fentanyl is the No. 1 killer of Americans ages 18-45. Fentanyl-related deaths in Texas increased over 600% from 2019 to 2023, taking the lives of more than 7,000 innocent Texans in just 4 years,†the Office of Texas Governor Gregg Abbott said. “This crisis affects the lives of everyone, tearing away friends and family members from their loved ones.†Read the rest of this entry »
HOUSTON (AP) – Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will center their attention on Texas on Friday with both presidential candidates holding events in the staunchly Republican state. The vice president will team up with Beyoncé for a rally aimed at highlighting the perilous medical fallout from the state’s strict abortion ban and putting the blame squarely on Trump.
Meanwhile, the former president will hold a news conference in Austin before sitting down with podcaster Joe Rogan later on.
President Joe Biden will visit a reservation in Arizona, a long-promised trip to Indian Country that Democrats hope could boost Harris’ turnout effort in a key battleground state.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
President Joe Biden is at last making his way to Indian Country, paying a long-promised visit to a reservation in Arizona that Democrats hope could provide a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris’ turnout effort in a key battleground state.
Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community’s land on the outskirts of metro Phoenix will be his first to Indian Country as president — something he promised tribal leaders he would do nearly two years ago.
During the visit, Biden intends to formally apologize to Native Americans for the U.S. government’s role in the abuse and neglect of Native children sent to federal boarding schools to assimilate them into white society, according to the White House.
Read more here.
If Donald Trump wins the presidential election, Republicans hope he will fulfill a longstanding GOP goal of privatizing the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been under government control since the Great Recession.
But Democrats and some economists warn that, especially in this time of high mortgage rates, doing so will make buying a home even more expensive.
Read more here.
With the end of her abbreviated presidential campaign in sight, Kamala Harris is trying to put the focus squarely on Donald Trump and his threat to democratic institutions, echoing the strategy used by Joe Biden before he ended his reelection bid.
It’s a bet that fear of the former Republican president can rally Harris supporters and nudge undecided voters to her side in the final days. Harris’ challenge will be connecting philosophical questions about American democracy with the everyday concerns of individual Americans.
The effort will be on full display Tuesday, when Harris delivers what her team describes as her closing argument from the Ellipse, the grassy space adjacent to the National Mall in Washington. It’s the same place where Trump stood when he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in what became a bloody attempt to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory.
AUSTIN (AP) – A potential showdown is brewing between the medical cannabis market and the hemp industry in Texas as both are looking to lawmakers to determine the future.
States like Colorado and California, where both medical and recreational marijuana are legal, are putting tighter restrictions on hemp products as a way to rein in access and force more health and safety accountability on the industry.
After his 2019 agricultural hemp legislation helped open up Texas’s hemp industry, state Sen. Charles Perry is now attempting to close it again, as legal weed-style products were never his intention. He suggested an outright ban on the consumable hemp market last week during a State Affairs Committee hearing.
“’If you can’t regulate it, control it, and enforce it, you just don’t allow it to happen,†Perry said.
Perry and other lawmakers have been particularly interested in regulating consumable THC products that can come in drink form. This makes it much more difficult for parents, teachers, law enforcement, and others to tell the difference between a regular drink and one that has been infused with THC.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick gave senators a list of legislative directives for the next session, and a prime target is a ban on delta-8 products. He suggested to lawmakers that the state examine the sales of intoxicating hemp products in Texas, make recommendations to regulate the sale of these products, and propose legislation to stop retailers who market these products to children.
The Texas Department of State Health Services also filed a case before the state’s Supreme Court in August to classify delta-8 as an illegal substance. While the case is pending, delta-8 is still legal to buy and sell.
The Texas hemp industry has argued in court that delta-8’s high is minimal, and if delta-8 and delta-9 products are banned, it would do irreparable harm to the industry and the state’s economy.
“Any bans or excessive legislation of hemp-derived cannabinoids, as suggested by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and others, will negatively impact an industry that has an $8 billion economic impact, pays $1.6 billion in annual wages, and supports more than 50,000 workers,†said Lukas Gilkey, CEO and co-founder of Hometown Hero, the company who filed a suit against the state and is defending the hemp industry in the state’s Supreme Court.
TYLER — The City of Tyler approved a $4,429,876 Capital Improvement Project on Wednesday to address drainage and erosion. According to our news partner KETK, the city says the project will focus on improving drainage on Keaton Avenue which they say “has been a focus for several years due to erosion and flooding residents have experienced.†The contract with Reynolds and Kay was approved on Wednesday.
“The project will focus on a drainage area that collects storm water from approximately 248 acres near Pollard Park and extends towards Donnybrook Avenue and East Southeast Loop 323. Storm water is precipitation that does not seep into the ground but runs off into our storm drain systems, where it eventually flows into our streams and lakes,†the City of Tyler said.
The project is being funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
GREGG COUNTY — The East Texas Food Bank in Longview got a $50,000 donation Wednesday morning. According to our news partner KETK, Atmos Energy provided $2 million to food banks for Hunger Action Month in September, with East Texas getting a part of the goods. The ETFB said the money will go a long way by providing 250,000 meals to people in five local counties.
“Hunger takes a community to really solve,†ETFB Chief Development Officer Tim Butler said. “One in six East Texans are food insecure. That includes one in four children. So it’s more than just the East Texas Food Bank trying to solve it themselves; partners like Atmos Energy really are the ones that are going to help turn the tide and solve this problem going forward.â€
ETFB’s Longview Resource Center served 6,600 families with more than 1.1 million meals last year. Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: SMITH COUNTY – Our KETK news partner reports that the Smith County Animal Control and Shelter has given an update on the 55 dogs seized in an alleged dogfighting ring.
On Sept. 9, Kerry Jones and Michael Jones were arrested after a call came in of wounded dogs found near a residence on CR 4136. During an investigation of the property, officials reported finding the 55 dogs, some in bad conditions.
The two cats and all 17 bully dogs have already been picked up by rescues. However, Rivera found that 11 of the dogs she evaluated were “not safe candidates for going into home environments.†These dogs were reportedly trained to fight, making them unsafe to be around other dogs and people, and are described as having a mentality to fight.
These 11 dogs will have to euthanized and Smith County officials reported that two of the dogs have already bitten staff members and tried to go after other dogs.
Read the rest of this entry »