Gross Domestic Product Swings Positive – After two negative GDP quarters in a row for the first half of 2022, GDP was on the rise again for the third quarter, up 2.6% according to the Commerce Department’s advanced estimate. This “primarily reflected increases in exports,” (bolstered by the strength of the U.S. dollar due to high inflation) “and consumer spending that were partially offset by a decrease in housing investment,” according to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Second-quarter GDP was off 0.6%.

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Big Early Voter Turnout -- As of October 26, georgiavoters.com has counted 1,123,329 early ballots for the November 8 midterm elections, compared with 743,772 at this same time in 2018, a 51% increase. According to The Washington Post mail-in ballots have “fallen off significantly,” per the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. 

WaPo cites the Virginia Public Access Office that 411,000 voters have cast ballots early, more than the total number who voted there in 2018. But in North Carolina, the state’s 530,000 ballots cast is 60,000 fewer than this same point in 2018, while just 550,000 Texans have voted early, down from 695,000 by this time in ’18.

Elsewhere in Georgia: Ex-President Trump’s ultimate chief of staff, Mark Meadows (pictured), has been ordered by a South Carolina judge to travel to Atlanta to testify in Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis’ investigation into election interference by Trump and his allies (per The New York Times). Meadows’ attorney James Bannister is said to be preparing an appeal on grounds the Fulton County grand jury behind the investigation does not have indictment authority.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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