Good morning, it’s Friday, September 20, 2024. In today’s edition, first states open early voting; Newsom signs deepfake AI bills; North Carolina’s GOP catastrophe:
Top Stories
ELECTIONS: Voters are heading to the polls! Early voting begins in Virginia, South Dakota and Minnesota today, the first states to open polls to voters. Most states have to send out ballots to overseas voters by today, 45 days ahead of Election Day. (Associated Press)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed AI bills criminalizing the creation and distribution of sexually explicit deepfakes. Newsom also signed first-in-the-nation legislation requiring AI-created content to come with a digital watermark. Large AI models would be required to provide users with an accessible AI detection tool. (Pluribus News)
HOUSING: California Gov. Newsom has signed a package of housing bills to streamline approval processes for new projects and requiring local governments to create affordable housing plans. One bill would impose penalties of up to $50,000 a month on communities that improperly reject housing projects. (Los Angeles Times)
TECHNOLOGY: Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R) and a group of Republican attorneys general are asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reject a $62 million consumer privacy settlement with Google. Bird objected to some of the money going to the ACLU and other organizations she said were overtly political. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration is awarding more than $3 billion to fund 25 electric vehicle projects in 14 states. Those projects, funded through the bipartisan infrastructure law, aim to help the U.S. electric vehicle market counter China’s dominance in battery production. (Associated Press)
HEALTH CARE: Arkansas lawmakers are backing a proposed emergency rule from the Arkansas Insurance Department aimed at requiring health benefit plans and pharmacy benefit managers to reimburse pharmacists at reasonable rates. A state legislative panel endorsed the proposed rule on Thursday. (Arkansas Democrat Gazette)
GUN POLITICS: A Dallas County judge has denied Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) request to force the Texas State Fair to end a policy banning guns on the fairgrounds. Paxton sought a temporary injunction last month. (Dallas Morning News)
In Politics & Business
NORTH CAROLINA: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) defied calls to get out of the race for governor on Thursday after CNN reported on past comments he allegedly made on a pornographic website supporting slavery, denigrating Martin Luther King Jr. and relating stories of peeping on women in locker room showers. (CNN)
Robinson was already headed for defeat. Now some North Carolina Republicans are warning he could drag the rest of the ticket down with him. Thursday at midnight was the deadline for candidates to remove themselves from the ballot.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: A new survey from the University of New Hampshire shows the race for governor in a dead heat. The poll finds former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig (D) leading former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) by a 47% to 46% margin, a statistical tie. Ayotte leads among independent voters by a wide 56%-32% margin, but 50% of voters see her unfavorably. (UNH)
SOUTH DAKOTA: A lawsuit challenging South Dakota’s statewide ballot measure supporting abortion rights will play out after November’s election, after the judge scheduled to handle the case pushed the schedule back to Dec. 2. (Associated Press)
CHILD CARE: Officials in Arizona and Oklahoma have ruled that candidates can use campaign cash to cover child care expenses. That brings to 35 the number of states where dependent care can be covered by campaign accounts, a trend that began in Minnesota in 1993 and took off in 2018 when the Federal Election Commission ruled in favor of a congressional candidate who needed coverage. (Pluribus News)
By The Numbers
$1.2 million: The salary plus bonus earned by Marcie Frost, chief executive of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Her $667,320 performance bonus, based on the system’s 9.3% return on investments last year, is the largest ever paid out. (CalMatters)
$7.1 million: The amount Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska have spent to send 519 National Guard members and 143 state troopers to the Texas border since 2021, as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) Operation Lone Star. (KCUR)
$1,702: The Permanent Fund dividend that Alaska residents will receive beginning Oct. 3, the state Department of Revenue said Thursday. This year’s dividend is $400 higher than last year’s. (Anchorage Daily News)
Off The Wall
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani became the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season in a 6-for-6 performance last night in which he hit three home runs and stole two bases. Ohtani is the first and only member of the 50/50 club. (ESPN)
Can we really call it the 50/50 club if it only has one member?
Microsoft and Constellation Energy have reached a deal to revive the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island as the tech giant seeks electricity for data centers powering the boom in artificial intelligence. Constellation expects Three Mile Island to go back online by 2028. (Bloomberg)
Quote of the Day
“I fear I can’t do everything. I’ve got, trying to get Kamala Harris elected President of the United States, trying to get through these 900 bills.”
— California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), explaining that he doesn’t have time to campaign against Proposition 36, a ballot measure he opposes. (Sacramento Bee)