Photo: Science Photo Library RF
1 Officials Confirm At Least Two Dead From Nicole
At least two people are dead as a result of damage brought by Nicole in Florida. Local authorities say the victims were "electrocuted by a downed power line." The storm that made landfall as a Category One hurricane yesterday has since weakened to a tropical depression. At the height of the conditions, Nicole knocked out power to 200-thousand people and pushed buildings near collapse. At last check, power’s been restored to all but 50-thousand. And now? Heavy rain is still hitting portions of the Southeastern US. In the storm’s path, Georgia, and the Carolinas…with the remnants hitting New England this weekend. Forecasters are predicting up to four inches of rain from Georgia to Virginia over the next two days with a lot of rain falling in a short amount of time, causing streams and rivers to overflow. Severe weather including damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes are predicted from Orlando, Florida, to Charleston, South Carolina.
2 Where We Stand With The Election
Mirror mirror on the wall, which side of the aisle has the most votes of all? Depending on whom you ask, it’s a win for their side – but in Georgia, we already know it’s headed to a runoff December 6th – it's necessary because neither candidate surpassed 50-percent to win outright. Here’s a look at some other high profile races: Alaska: Democrat Mary Peltola is emerging victorious in the race for Alaska's lone congressional representative. The final ballot counts released last night show Peltola leading with a little over 47% of the vote. Her closest challenger, Republican Sarah Palin, was in second place…and it wasn’t even close, as she has 27% of the vote. Peltola made history in August as the first Alaska Native elected to Congress when she won a special election to replace the late Don Young, who died in March. Arizona: The race for governor in Arizona is taking shape as more votes are released. Republican Kari Lake remained confident speaking to Fox News earlier in the day, although Democrat Katie Hobbs increased her lead over Lake by around 27-thousand votes following the release of roughly 80-thousand more last night. At last check, Hobbs’ lead is about 1.4% above Lake. Also in Arizona…Senator Mark Kelly holds a slight lead over Republican Blake Masters – to the tune of 114-thousand votes. Colorado: House Republican Lauren Boebert is in a tight race in her Colorado district. As of last night, Boebert was leading Democratic challenger Adam Frisch by only a thousand votes. Boebert's district was considered solidly Republican ahead of Tuesday's election. Under Colorado law, a recount is required if the two top vote-getters are within half a percentage point of the total vote cast. Nevada: Republican Adam Laxalt is leading Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in the race for one of Nevada's U.S. Senate seats. Laxalt, the former Nevada attorney general, has 50% of the vote. Senator Cortez Masto had close to 48% of the vote as of Wednesday night – with the deficit slightly closing last night. What’s all this mean? The close margin in the House means that every uncalled race matters in the battle to get to a majority of 218 seats. At last check, Dems hold 206 in the House (they previously had 222) and the GOP has 213 seats (the same they had before). As for the Senate, 31 of 35 seats up for election have been called – and the Dems gained one seat, while Republicans lost one. So really, we’re not likely to know who’s in control there until after the Georgia run-off.
3 Racial Slurs On Twitter Triple Following Musk Takeover
A new study released shows use of racial slurs on Twitter tripled in the days following Elon Musk's takeover. The study found more than 26-thousand-200 tweets and retweets containing the N-word were published between October 31st and November 6th. Researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate say that last time use of the racial slur spiked on Twitter was in April, when Musk announced he planned to buy the social media platform. On a related note, Musk has plans to make Twitter a place where people can shop for goods and be offered money market accounts. Twitter's new owner floated the idea during an audio broadcast intended for major advertisers that have left or have considered steering clear of the platform since Musk took over. He said Twitter will likely need many commerce partners if it will eventually offer e-commerce features for users. Meantime, Twitter has officially launched their new subscription service, Twitter Blue, allowing users to pay for a check mark on their account indicating they have been verified. The new subscription version costs seven-99 a month and will also include an edit function, priority in replies and mentions and fewer ads. Musk has said the goal is to reduce the volume of bot accounts on the platform. However, many are arguing that the move does the exact opposite with multiple "parody" accounts paying for the service, then impersonating celebrities and journalists.