News & Brews September 20, 2024
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‘Red flags’ for Harris in Philly?
The Inquirer states the obvious: Philly will vote overwhelmingly Democrat in the upcoming presidential election. But the Inky suggests that within Dems’ advantage in the city lie several possible red flags, including weaker turnout, low enthusiasm, and pessimism over the economy.
POLITICO: ‘Actual electoral map is three states’
A story in POLITICO posits that amid all the reports of swing states, “There are really only three states that will decide the presidential election: Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.” To clarify, this isn’t saying other battleground states don’t matter. Yet, of Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona, “none … are relevant if Trump first blocks … [Harris] in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.”
From the mail-in ballot lawsuit(s) front
Following a ruling last week on procedural grounds saying a lower court should not have taken up a mail-in ballot case, yesterday the state Supreme Court officially dismissed the case. Separately, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports, “The Republican Party is asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to find it illegal for county boards of elections to alert voters to defective mail-in ballots and give them the chance to correct errors.” The GOP argues that this “would ensure clarity and uniformity across the battleground state just 47 days before Pennsylvanians are expected to play an outsize role in the presidential election.” One thing that’s clear is the widespread (and multi-year) confusion that’s been caused by the Left’s repeated attempts to use the courts to rewrite existing law.
Reopening TMI?
Rumors have been swirling for a bit about attempts to reopen Three Mile Island nuclear power station. Well, PennLive reports today that the rumors are true. “After months of hints and speculation, the owner of the closed nuclear power station on Three Mile Island is announcing today that it has decided to try to bring it back online by 2028.” The plan, however, “would apply only to the island’s Unit 1 reactor, which was closed by then-owner Exelon in 2019 as it started to turn into a money loser.” You’ll recall Rep. Tom Mehaffie’s (thankfully) failed attempt to impose a $500 million energy tax to bail out the power station before it closed. Hopefully he does not try again.
School choice in the 2024 elections
EducationWeek gives a run-down of several school choice questions that will be on the November ballot in multiple states. All this comes against the backdrop of a GOP Party platform that embraces universal school choice and a Democrat Party platform that opposes giving kids educational opportunities separate from failing government-run, union-controlled schools.