In the news today: Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration; control of the U.S. House rests on around a dozen uncalled races; and four women suing over Idaho’s abortion ban describe becoming ‘medical refugees’. Also, when to catch the last supermoon of the year. |
Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem and John Ratcliffe. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, J. Scott Applewhite, Patrick Semansky)
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The new members of Donald Trump’s administration so far
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From secretary of homeland security to CIA director, Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration. Here’s a look at who he has selected so far. Read more. |
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Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security. Trump picked a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. The South Dakota Gov. will also oversee the government’s natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports.
Pete Hegseth to serve as defense secretary. Co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend” and an Army veteran, Hegseth was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Minnesota in 2012. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises from Russia’s war in Ukraine to the conflicts in the Middle East.
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John Ratcliffe to serve as CIA director. A former Republican congressman from Texas, Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence for the final year and a half of Trump’s first term, leading the U.S. government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Many uncalled House races are in California. This is why it takes the state weeks to count votes
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One week after Election Day, control of the U.S. House rests on around a dozen races where winners have not yet been determined. About half of the yet-to-be-decided House races are in the state of California, which has only counted about three-quarters of its votes statewide. Read more. |
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Lawmakers in California designed their elections to improve accessibility and increase turnout. From automatically receiving a ballot at home, having up until Election Day to turn it in or having several days to address any problems that may arise with their ballot, Californians have a lot of time and opportunity to vote. It comes at the expense of knowing the final vote counts soon after polls close.
All-mail systems will almost always prolong the count. Mail ballots require additional verification steps, so they can take longer to tabulate. Slower counts also come alongside later mail ballot deadlines. In 2015, California implemented its first postmark deadline, meaning that the state can count mail ballots arriving after Election Day as long as the Postal Service receives the ballot by then. This year, California ballots may arrive up to a week after November 5.
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Women suing over Idaho’s abortion ban describe becoming ‘medical refugees’
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Four women suing over Idaho’s strict abortion bans told a judge Tuesday how excitement over their pregnancies turned to grief and fear after they learned their fetuses were not likely to survive to birth — and how they had to leave the state to get abortions amid fears that pregnancy complications would put their own health in danger. Read more.
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The women, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, aren’t asking for the state’s abortion ban to be overturned. Instead, they want the judge to clarify and expand the exceptions to the strict ban so that people facing serious pregnancy complications can receive abortions before they are at death’s door.
Currently, the state’s near-total ban makes performing an abortion a felony at any stage of pregnancy unless it is “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.” James Craig, a division chief with the Idaho Attorney General’s office, said the women and their attorneys are relying on hypotheticals rather than concrete facts. Craig said that under their proposal, a pregnant woman could have an abortion for something as minor as stepping on a rusty nail — even though the risk of infection in that scenario could be easily treated with a tetanus booster shot.
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Dr. Emily Corrigan, an ob-gyn who works in emergency medicine at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center who is also a plaintiff in the case, told the judge how Idaho’s multiple abortion bans have created confusion for physicians and made it difficult to treat pregnant patients who need emergency care. Doctors have had to “basically guess which pregnancy conditions would fall under the state medical exception,” Corrigan said.
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People walk in front of a rising supermoon at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
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When to catch the last supermoon of the year
This will be the year’s fourth and final supermoon, looking bigger and brighter than usual as it comes within about 225,000 miles (361,867 kilometers) of Earth on Thursday. It won’t reach its full lunar phase until Friday. |
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