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As they aim to flip a Democratic-held Senate seat in a crucial battleground state in 2024, the Pennsylvania GOP is working to prevent a repeat of last year's crowded and combustible primary.  Pennsylvania Republican committee members unanimously endorsed Dave McCormick Saturday as their party's nominee in next year's showdown against longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. The race could ultimately decide whether the GOP wins back the Senate majority. "I am deeply humbled to receive the unanimous endorsement of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. United as one, Republicans across Pennsylvania will win. We will defeat Bob Casey and bring strong leadership to Washington on behalf of the commonwealth," McCormick said as he accepted the state party's endorsement as it met in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s adminis...

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., falsely accused House Republicans of attempting to "provide themselves with a pay raise" Saturday as she objected to a stopgap spending bill before ultimately voting for the measure. DeLauro said there were "many changes" between the bill that was offered in the House and the version that was offered in the Senate , with one being a pay increase for those serving in Congress. "Here is one that I believe the majority will not mention," DeLauro said. "They amend the Senate bill to give themselves a pay raise. A pay raise. It's there. You can look at me, you can smile but what you did was you amended the Senate bill to give yourselves a pay raise." DeLauro's claim was met with immediate pushback from House Republicans, who shouted her down, yelling "That's false." HOUSE ADOPTS 'CLEAN' STOPGAP FUNDING BILL AVERTING SHUTDOWN Expounding on her claim in a post to social media, DeLauro wrote...

A federal judge in Maryland on Friday temporarily blocked part of a new state law that would restrict where gun owners can carry.  U.S. District Judge George Russell III, an Obama appointee, ruled the state can’t ban guns in places where alcohol is sold, on private property without permission of the owner or at public demonstrations.  The legislation is set to take effect Sunday.  The judge’s ruling came after the law, which was a response to a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended a requirement to show a need for a license to carry a  concealed gun  in public and led to more permits, was challenged by the NRA, Firearms Policy Coalition and state gun rights groups.  MARYLAND COUNTY VOTES TO RESTRICT GUN POSSESSION IN MOST PUBLIC PLACES   Russell kept the bans on areas that could be considered "sensitive places" like schools, museums, state parks and mass transit.  He based his decision on the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that limi...

Rep. Jamaal Bowman's, D-N.Y., chief of staff confirmed that the congressman pulled a fire alarm in a congressional office building Saturday, and said that Bowman "regrets any confusion" over the incident. The House Administration committee announced that an investigation into the situation, which happened in the Cannon Building, is underway. Sources also told Fox News that Bowman was questioned by the Capitol Police on Saturday. The alarm-pulling happened as Republicans were beginning a vote on a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown Saturday. Bowman's chief of staff, Sarah Iddrissu, offered an explanation.  "Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote," Iddrissu wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "The Congressman regrets any confusion." DIANNE FEINSTEIN DEAD: LONGTIME CALIFORNIA SENATOR WAS 90 According to Axios, Bowman told reporters that he thought the ...

Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz threatened again to boot House Speaker Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., from his post on Saturday amid chaotic spending negotiations and a vote in the House on a short-term spending bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown. The House passed a continuing resolution (CR) Saturday that funds the government at current levels until mid-November. Every Democrat voted for the measure but one, and 90 Republicans voted against the stopgap spending measure. Gaetz, who said before the vote that he was against the resolution, has been threatening to force a House-wide vote on whether to remove McCarthy from the speakership over alleged violations of a deal he struck with critics to win the speaker’s gavel in January. Under confirmed terms of that compromise, McCarthy agreed to allow any lawmaker to trigger a vote on his removal, known as a motion to vacate. HOUSE ADOPTS 'CLEAN' STOPGAP FUNDING BILL AVERTING SHUTDOWN "The one thing everyone seems to have...

Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz threatened again to boot House Speaker Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., from his post on Saturday amid chaotic spending negotiations and a vote in the House on a short-term spending bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown. Gaetz, who said he is "not voting for a continuing resolution," has been threatening to force a House-wide vote on whether to remove McCarthy from the speakership over alleged violations of a deal he struck with critics to win the speaker’s gavel in January. Under confirmed terms of that compromise, McCarthy agreed to allow any lawmaker to trigger a vote on his removal, known as a motion to vacate. HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO VOTE ON 'CLEAN' STOPGAP FUNDING BILL DESPITE CONSERVATIVE OUTRAGE "The one thing everyone seems to have in common is no one trusts Kevin McCarthy," Gaetz told reporters outside the Capitol on Saturday. "I've said that whether or not Kevin McCarthy faces a motion to vacate is entirely ...

The House of Representatives voted Saturday to pass a short-term spending bill, moving to avoid a government shutdown if the Senate adopts the measure. The bill now heads to the Senate. If it's expedited there, Congress could just narrowly avoid seeing thousands of federal employees furloughed and nonessential government programs paused. House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle broke out into applause in a rare moment of bipartisanship after the short-term bill known as a continuing resolution (CR), passed 335 to 91. The funding patch will last for 45 days past the end of the fiscal year, which concludes at midnight Sunday, Oct. 1. The bill also includes $16 billion for U.S. disaster relief aid that President Biden requested over the summer, Speaker Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., said on Saturday.  It comes after House Republicans tried and failed to pass a seperate stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), which contained conservative policy items like border...

Reuters : Robinhood says it expects a $100M charge in Q3 to resolve some legal and regulatory matters that were previously disclosed   —  Robinhood Markets (HOOD.O) expects a $100-million charge in the third quarter to resolve some legal and regulatory matters that were previously disclosed, the trading app operator said on Friday.

Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday remained noncommittal on a strategy to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gases after a task force the Democrat appointed came to an uncertain conclusion over how to make Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt carbon pricing over power plant emissions. The task force sprang from Shapiro questioning his predecessor's use of regulatory authority to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a consortium of 12 eastern states that imposes a price and declining cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. However, the 17-member task force — comprised of supporters and opponents of former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's plan — could come to no consensus on it. PENNSYLVANIA GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO'S GROUP DESIGNED TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE MET FOR FIRST TIME THIS WEEK Wolf's regulation allowing Pennsylvania to join the consortium remains hung up in the courts, and Shapiro gave no sign Friday whether he would carry out the consortium...

Bloomberg : MakerDAO has passed a proposal that will allow it to invest up to $6B in short-term US Treasuries, double the current limit; MKR token is up almost 3x in 2023   —  - MakerDAO can now invest up to $6 billion in Treasuary Bills  — The project's MKR is 2023's best-performing major token

FIRST ON FOX — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is doubling down on his forceful policies regarding the southern border after the Mexican president urged American voters not to support him in the 2024 election.  Ramaswamy has been vocal about wanting to send the military to the border in order to crack down on the surge of migrants coming into the U.S. and go after the drug cartels. During a press conference earlier this week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador lashed out at the 38-year-old political outsider after he was asked by a reporter about the candidate's so-called "threat" to the country. "That candidate from the Republican Party who says he is going to invade Mexico, no American of Mexican origin should vote for him," Obrador said, "because he who does not love his homeland does not love his mother." RAMASWAMY UNVEILS PLAN TO ‘DECLARE ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE FROM CHINA’ IN UPCOMING POLICY SPEECH In a statement...

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told the Democratic Senate Caucus during a closed lunch on Thursday he would not resign amid federal corruption and bribery charges announced this week. "I will continue to cast votes on behalf of the people of New Jersey as I have for 18 years," Menendez said as he exited the lunch. "I think Schumer may need those votes, he’ll be looking forward for me to cast them." According to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V, who was in the meeting, Menendez made his point well. Menendez and his wife federal corruption and bribery charges. "I think he made his point, he delivered it very well," Manchin told reporters. "Basically the whole theme of everything was every American is innocent until proven guilty, giving the benefit of the doubt." BOB MENENDEZ, WIFE NADINE PLEAD NOT GUILTY ON FEDERAL CORRUPTION CHARGES Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii., left the meeting while Menendez spoke due to being on the eth...

Daniel Wiessner / Reuters : A New York state judge rejects a bid by Uber, DoorDash, and Grubhub to block NYC's law setting a minimum pay of $17.96/hour for app-based delivery workers   —  A New York state judge on Thursday rejected a bid by Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N), DoorDash Inc and other gig economy firms to block …

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., confronted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a closed-door House GOP conference meeting on Thursday morning.  A source familiar with the meeting said "fireworks" occurred when Gaetz rose to accuse McCarthy and his allies of waging an online campaign against him using "MAGA influencers paid to attack Matt" on social media. McCarthy denied the claim and dismissed Gaetz. "McCarthy said he wouldn’t waste his time on Gaetz like that," the source told Fox News Digital. Another source present at the meeting said that McCarthy told Gaetz, "Tomorrow I'm spending my time giving $5 million [to GOP candidates and members] to expand our majority. What are you doing to help our majority?" The second source said that other members also had expressed frustration with Gaetz. One lawmaker told Gaetz to "f--- off," the source said, while another called him a "scumbag." Gaetz seemed to confirm to reporters he ...

Brian Heater / TechCrunch : Meta teases Meta Quest for business, set to launch in October with a focus on enterprise AR applications including Microsoft 360, which is coming later in 2023   —  Meta's Quest headsets have long been reliably consumer focused - at least until last year's Quest Pro launch.

Alabama lawmakers voted Tuesday to move forward with the construction of a new Statehouse to replace their current space, which they said is plagued with mold and other problems despite a number of renovations in recent decades. The Alabama Legislative Council, a 20-member panel made up of legislative leaders and their appointees, backed the signing of an agreement with the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which has built several office buildings in downtown Montgomery that are used by other public entities, for the design and construction of a new Statehouse. It would be sold or leased to the Alabama Legislature . Republican Sen. Sam Givhan, who is a chairman of the council, said lawmakers do not yet know an estimated cost but it will become available in the design phase. Lawmakers will be able pull out of the construction agreement if they decide the price tag is too high. ALABAMA LAWMAKERS ADVANCE MEASURE THAT COULD CREATE A NEW STATEHOUSE "That is going to depend on what th...

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said Tuesday she has directed state police to launch new strategies aimed at disrupting the fentanyl supply chain and holding sellers of the frequently deadly drug accountable. Kotek said in a statement that she made the announcement at a Tuesday meeting of her task force created to revitalize downtown Portland. "I want all Oregonians to know that the state is moving forward with several new fentanyl strategic enforcement and disruption strategies," Kotek's statement said. NYC DAY CARE OWNER, NEIGHBOR FACE FEDERAL CHARGES AFTER 1-YEAR-OLD DIES FROM FENTANYL EXPOSURE: PROSECUTORS   The plans include increasing and reallocating state police staff to local drug enforcement teams, holding trainings with the Oregon Department of Justice to address potential biases and avoid unlawful searches, and leading interagency patrols that emphasize intercepting fentanyl using drug dogs and detectives, Kotek said. She said a pilot project using a data-driven...

President Biden nearly took a tumble down the stairs while exiting Air Force Once on Tuesday, hours after it was exposed that his campaign team was making efforts to prevent the president from taking a spill in public during the election season. The 80-year-old president had just landed in Detroit, Michigan, when he disembarked from the jumbo jet at Detroit Metro Airport. Around the eighth step, Biden was seen slipping before quickly correcting his balance and continuing down the steps. BIDEN'S 2024 TEAM IS ON A MISSION TO STOP HIM FROM TRIPPING AMID STRUGGLE WITH ‘SIGNIFICANT SPINAL ARTHRITIS’ Earlier this year, the White House physician diagnosed Biden with "significant spinal arthritis," and since then he has had multiple tripping incidents that get many people questioning his age and whether he is fit to serve as president. To prevent another embarrassing fall, Axios reported Tuesday, Biden's team is making a conscious effort to have him wear tennis shoes a...

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch : The US FCC announces plans to reinstate net neutrality and “return to the successful rules the Commission adopted in 2015”   —  Net neutrality is back on the menu, citizens.  After a long, long battle ending in eventual defeat during Trump's presidency, the FCC is set to reinstate rules …

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman renewed his call for his colleague Sen. Bob Menendez to resign on Tuesday and invoked the controversy surrounding the Senate dropping its dress code while doing so.  "This week, I hope to see my colleagues fully address the alleged systemic corruption of Senator Menendez with the same vigor and velocity they brought to concerns about our dress code," Fetterman said in a statement Tuesday. Fetterman’s comment comes a little over a week after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer dropped the dress code for senators which many referred to as the "Fetterman Rule" given that Fetterman has routinely been seen around the building wearing gym shorts and his trademark hoodie.  Additionally, Fetterman found a workaround to the legislative body's dress code rules by voting from the doorway of the Democratic cloakroom or the side entrance, making sure his vote is recorded before ducking out. LEGAL EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON MENENDEZ...

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica : Review of macOS 14 Sonoma: a better stab at usable widgets, improved password manager, promising gaming enhancements, but more features are skipping Intel Macs   —  If at first you don't create usable desktop widgets, try, try again.  —  I was preparing to write an intro calling macOS Sonoma …

David Pierce / The Verge : Eddie Cue's US v. Google testimony: Cue said Google was the only “valid” search choice for a deal; the DOJ noted Apple railed against Google's privacy policies   —  Eddy Cue, in a dark suit, peered down at the monitor in front of him.  The screens in the Washington, DC …

The Wisconsin state Senate's chief clerk has resigned in the face of an undisclosed allegation, the chamber's top Republican announced Monday. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a two-sentence statement that Chief Clerk resigned following a "credible allegation" and an ensuing independent investigation. LeMahieu went on to say that Michael Queensland has denied all allegations. LeMahieu did not elaborate and his spokesperson, Brian Radday, didn't immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking more details. LEGAL EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON MENENDEZ INDICTMENT, SUGGEST 'MONSTER' CHARGES POINT TO LIKELY CONVICTION LeMahieu’s office and the chief clerk’s office have yet to fulfill open records quests that the AP filed earlier this month seeking copies of any complaints against Queensland and communications about his job status. The Senate chief clerk , a non-partisan position, serves as the chamber's administrator, handling a v...

Scharon Harding / Ars Technica : LG unveils Gram Fold, its first foldable-screen laptop, weighing just 2.76 lb, launching on October 4 in South Korea for ~$3.7K, rivaling Asus, Lenovo, others   —  LG's 17-inch foldable OLED arrives October 4 for 4.99 million won (~$3,726).  —  Lenovo launched the first foldable laptop in 2020 …

NASCAR driver-turned-politician Austin Theriault announced Monday that he's entering the Republican primary seeking an opportunity to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in what’s expected to be one of the country's most competitive 2024 House races. Theriault, who made his announcement on radio shows, said he'll "come in with fire" to confront issues like inflation, illegal border crossings and dying small towns. "Regular hardworking folks are getting held down by out-of-touch, out-of-state elites who are clueless about how hard it is to make a living in Maine ," he said. The 29-year-old freshman state lawmaker from Fort Kent formally filed his paperwork Monday, joining mortgage broker Robert Cross, of Dedham and another first-term lawmaker, Michael Soboleski, of Phillips, in the primary contest. HOUSE DEM SHREDS 'RADICAL LEFTIST ELITES,' DEFENDS VOTING DOWN BIDEN STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT Golden said he's not worrying himself about t...

FIRST ON FOX: GOP lawmakers sent a letter to national security adviser Jake Sullivan Monday urging him to provide more precise numbers regarding aid to Ukraine. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, along with Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said the letter – first obtained by Fox News Digital – comes following a White House briefing last week when Sullivan stated that the Biden administration had sent around $79.9 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war started in February 2022. However, a week earlier, the White House Office of Management and Budget gave Vance’s office a chart showing at least $101 billion spent, with plans for additional spending. The group of lawmakers – who have been vocal critics of aid to Ukraine – want the $31.1 billion discrepancy between his statement and OMB's data cleared up. WHITE HOUSE REQUESTS SIX TIMES MORE SPENDING FOR UKRAINE THAN BORDER AND FENTANYL CRISIS "We write to provide you the opportunity to clarify your remarks and communic...

White House press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged when pressed by a reporter Monday on President Biden's sour approval rating among registered voters, as well as concerns over his age and mental fitness. The reporter noted during the White House press briefing that recent polling from NBC News showing just 37% of registered voters approved of Biden's handling of the economy and a 56% disapproval, which the reporter noted was the "highest of his presidency." He added that the "major or moderate" concern over Biden's age and mental fitness came from 74% of registered voters. "Here's what we're going to focus on: We're going to focus on exactly what you just asked me. Right? The first question, which is how do we continue to support the workers. Right? … We're going to do is continue to show how much this president is working for American families," Jean-Pierre responded, referencing a previous question on the ongoing Unite...

Leke Oso Alabi / Financial Times : Gripped by worker shortages, some security companies are using robots developed by 1X, Knightscope, Ava Robotics, Ascento, and others to augment human labor   —  Most androids focus on repetitive tasks, augmenting human labour, say executives  —  In the world of security services where companies …

Republican legislation that would create additional federal safeguards to protect U.S. agriculture land from Chinese buyers overcame its latest hurdle by a substantial margin, putting it on track for a full floor vote. The Agricultural Security Risk Review Act — introduced by Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., who chairs the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee — was greenlighted during a House Financial Services Committee markup with unanimous support in a 42-0 vote last week. The vote on the bill, which received support from Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Ranking Member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., sets up a full floor vote in the coming weeks. "Foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land is dramatically exploding across the spectrum," Lucas told Fox News Digital in an interview. "It's not just land to produce corn or beans in the Midwest or medical marijuana in Oklahoma, it's buying assets that process agricultural products that continue to affect the ...

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife are  facing corruption and bribery charges  that have led to amplified calls for the senior Democrat to resign from the Senate. Menendez, however, has remained defiant. During a Monday morning press conference, he said he believes he will be exonerated and remain in Congress's upper chamber. However, if he were to unexpectedly resign, all eyes would be on New Jersey Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy. Federal prosecutors unsealed charges against Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, on Friday that include accusations that he benefited the government of Egypt and engaged  in a corrupt scheme  alongside Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer; Wael Hana, who runs a halal meat certification business in the state; and businessman Jose Uribe. Menendez has since encountered growing calls to resign from within his own political party. New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio C...

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit against a healthcare company last week after it provided puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors without a mental health assessment, as required by state law before sex reassignments were banned. On Aug. 28, Missouri’s Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act was implemented as law in the state. After the law was passed, Bailey’s office sent a letter to providers across Missouri, warning them to stop providing experimental treatment on treatment immediately. MISSOURI LAW BANNING GENDER-CHANGING TREATMENTS FOR MINORS TAKES EFFECT The recipients of the letter included Washington University in St. Louis; Children’s Mercy in Kansas City; Planned Parenthood in Great Plains and St. Louis; AIDS Project of the Ozarks in Springfield, and Southampton Healthcare in St. Louis. The letter touched on SAFE Act’s ban on puberty blockers or other treatments to any new patients, and punishments such as doctors or profession...

Jody Serrano / The Messenger : Q&A with Kevin Systrom about Artifact's Links discovery feature, moderation, the bear case and bull case for Threads, the current state of Instagram, and more   —  Kevin Systrom hopes a fresh jolt of growth to his Artifact app allows it to compete better with the industry's bigger relics

McKenzie Funk / New York Times : A profile of Hank Asher, the “father of data fusion” who died in 2013 after initiating a vast shift in privacy norms through his data mining software companies   —  Hank Asher was a drug smuggler with a head for numbers — until he figured out how to turn Americans' private information into a big business.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said he would finish what former President Donald Trump started at the U.S.-Mexico border and complete the wall construction if elected in 2024. Scott made the statement during a Sunday morning appearance on Fox News, telling host Griff Jenkins that Democrats don't understand the border issue. He went on to blast the Biden administration for selling supplies that had been intended for the construction of the wall. "Washington is out of touch with the rest of the nation. One of the reasons we need change in the nation's capital is that Washington is so consistently broken that the American people don't trust the people in Washington. I understand that," Scott said.  "As a guy who spends some time in Washington, but a whole lot of time in South Carolina, I can just say to the leaders of this nation today, bless your heart, which is a Southern way of saying you guys just don't get it," he added. WITH FOUR MONTHS UNTIL THE FI...