(THU 9/15/22)

Economy Back on Track? – After 20 straight hours of negotiations with labor leaders for freight rail engineers, conductors and other workers, the White House has announced a tentative agreement to preclude a strike set for midnight Friday. The tentative agreement potentially averts another supply chain crisis that could have stopped 30% of cargo shipments in the U.S., NPR reports.

Though the strike deadline forcing the non-stop negotiations was announced just this week, the labor dispute over work schedules as much as pay has been ongoing for years, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. The agreement still faces a vote by labor union members.

Note: The same week Republicans have hit President Biden for touting his programs’ effects on the U.S. economy in the face of disappointing inflation news, the White House has a new “win” to take to the midterms, though consumers-voters will know of this tentative victory only by what would not happen to the economy.

•••

DeSantis Sends Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent two full airplanes full of migrants from his state to Martha’s Vineyard, the New York Post reports. Florida’s Department of Transportation has $12 million set aside for such flights by the state legislature. 

Wednesday’s flights transported about 50 migrants, most of them from Venezuela, according to NPR, and some of whom were apparently not completely aware of what was happening. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (like DeSantis, a Republican) said the arrivals were provided short-term shelter, according to Fox News Digital. 

DeSantis’ communications director, Taryn Fenske, released this statement: “States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the case of those individuals who they have invited to our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support the Biden administration’s open border policies.”

Note: DeSantis clearly has scored a high-profile victory in his effort to grab the 2024 GOP presidential nomination ahead of fellow Floridian Donald J. Trump. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to simply bus them to another favorite target of DeSantis' Culture War, Walt Disney World?

--Edited by Todd Lassa

_____________________________________

TUESDAY’S PRIMARIES (WED 9/14/22)

New Hampshire: Incumbent Republican Gov. Chris Sununu easily won his party’s primary, and is heavily favored over the Democratic candidate, Tom Sherman, who won his primary unchallenged. Earlier this year, GOP officials urged Sununu to pack up the governor’s mansion and run for U.S. Senate instead, to offer a strong challenge to incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan, who is seen as highly vulnerable. 

Hassan instead will defend her seat against an election denier, Don Bolduc, who beat establishment candidate Chuck Morse in the GOP primary. 

Rhode Island: Incumbent Democratic Gov. Dan McKee narrowly beat ex-CVS executive Helena Foulkes, who earned a last-minute endorsement from The Boston Globe, the AP reports. McKee became governor in early 2021, replacing two-term Gov. Gina Raimondo, when she was tapped by the Biden administration for Commerce secretary. McKee’s Republican challenger is Ashley Kalus, who moved from Illinois to Rhode Island after a dispute over a cancelled contract with her COVID-19-testing firm, the AP reports. 

In the race for Rhode Island’s 2^nd Congressional District, where Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin is retiring after more than 20 years, his endorsee, state treasurer Seth Magaziner won a crowded primary and faces unchallenged Republican Allan Fung, former mayor of Cranston. 

For the 1^st Congressional District, six-term Rep. David Cicilline ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, as did his Republican challenger for the midterm election, Allan Waters, the AP reports.

Delaware: Republican Lee Murphy challenges incumbent Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester for the state’s at-large Congressional District November 8.

•••

Another Trumper’s Phone Seized: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell told his podcast audience that FBI agents approached him at a Mankato, Minnesota Hardee’s restaurant and seized his smartphone after questioning him about Mesa County (Colorado) Clerk Tina Peters, Dominion Voting Systems and Ohio educator Doug Frank, who claims voting machines have been manipulated, the AP reports. The MyPillow Guy, as he’s best-known, showed his audience in the video version of The Lindell Report, a letter signed by a U.S. attorney in Colorado that said prosecutors were conducting an “official criminal investigation of a suspected felony,” and mentioned a grand jury. 

The Justice Department did not respond to the AP about the investigation, though an FBI spokeswoman confirmed via email that a warrant had been served at the Hardee’s. 

•••

Kenneth Starr Dies: Kenneth Starr, the “widely respected appeals court judge and solicitor general” (per The New York Times' obituary) who was appointed special counsel in the investigation of President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, died Tuesday at a Houston hospital from complications of surgery related to an undisclosed illness. He was 76. 

•••

CORRECTION: An earlier version of "Another Trumper's Phone Seized" incorrectly stated the state from which Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters works and resides.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

_____