FlashMobOfOne

The Supreme Court rejected Republicans’ request to block Pennsylvania officials from counting provisional ballots by voters whose mail ballots are rejected for technical flaws.

The high court order follows Wednesday’s order permitting a GOP-backed purge of Virginia voter rolls ahead of Election Day. The Virginia order was entered over dissent from the court’s three Democratic appointees.

In the Pennsylvania case, the state Supreme Court split 4-3 in upholding a lower court ruling that required the counting of provisional ballots submitted by voters who are told their mail ballots can’t be counted. “Provisional ballots exist as a failsafe to preserve access to the right to vote,” the state court said, noting that such ballots can only be counted if no other ballots from a voter are counted.

“The General Assembly wrote the Election Code with the purpose of enabling citizens to exercise their right to vote, not for the purpose of creating obstacles to voting,” the state court majority said.

A key swing state, Pennsylvania was decided by about 80,000 votes in Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Donald Trump and by about 44,000 votes in Trump’s 2016 win over Hillary Clinton. The 2024 race between Trump and Kamala Harris is also expected to be close.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former Republican congressional candidate was charged with stealing ballots during a test of a voting system in Madison County, Indiana, state police said on Tuesday.

During the test on Oct. 3, which involved four voting machines and 136 candidate ballots marked for testing, officials discovered that two ballots were missing, according to the Indiana State Police.

Voter fraud is rare in the United States, and courts dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud brought by former President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies who accused Democrats of stealing the 2020 election.Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in a Nov. 5 presidential election.

For four years, Trump has maintained his false claim, supported by a majority of Republicans in Congress, that the 2020 election was stolen. As a result, some states and counties have stepped up precautions.

Surveillance video showed Larry Savage, 51, a precinct committeeman, folding and placing both ballots in his pocket after receiving instructions about the validity of the test ballots, the police said.

CLEVELAND -- The Browns' back-and-forth battle with Cleveland over a planned move into a new suburban stadium has gone to court.

The NFL team said Thursday it has filed a lawsuit in federal court asking for clarification of the "Modell Law," which the city has threatened to use to keep the Browns from leaving after their lease at lakefront Huntington Bank Field expires in 2028.

The team has played its games in downtown Cleveland since the 1940s, and in its current 65,000-seat stadium, which is leased to the team by the city, since 1999.

The section of state law known as the "Modell Law" says any professional sports owner that uses a tax-supported facility for home games and gets funding from the state or a political subdivision can't leave unless it gets permission to play elsewhere or gives six months' notice.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, although Harris earns slightly better marks on elements such as taxes for the middle class, according to a new poll.

A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor. About 7 in 10 say the nation is going in the wrong direction.

But the findings reaffirm that Trump has lost what had been an advantage on the economy, which many voters say is the most important issue this election season above abortion, immigration, crime and foreign affairs.

“Do I trust Trump on the economy? No. I trust that he’ll give tax cuts to his buddies like Elon Musk,” said poll respondent Janice Tosto, a 59-year-old Philadelphia woman and self-described independent.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in September found neither Harris nor Trump had a clear advantage on handling “the economy and jobs.” But this poll asked more specific questions about whether voters trusted Trump or Harris to do a better job handling the cost of housing, jobs and unemployment, taxes on the middle class, the cost of groceries and gas, and tariffs.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s government said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house Saturday, with no casualties, as fighting with Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Gaza -based Hamas showed no pause after the killing of the Hamas mastermind of last year’s Oct. 7 attack.

Israel’s military said dozens of projectiles were launched from Lebanon a day after Hezbollah announced a new phase in fighting. Netanyahu’s office said the drone targeted his house in the Mediterranean coastal town of Caesarea. Neither he nor his wife were there. It wasn’t clear if the house was hit.

A 25-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes started producing her own insulin less than three months after receiving a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells1. She is the first person with the disease to be treated using cells that were extracted from her own body.

“I can eat sugar now,” said the woman, who lives in Tianjing, on a call with Nature. It has been more than a year since the transplant, and, she says, “I enjoy eating everything — especially hotpot.” The woman asked to remain anonymous to protect her privacy.

James Shapiro, a transplant surgeon and researcher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, says the results of the surgery are stunning. “They’ve completely reversed diabetes in the patient, who was requiring substantial amounts of insulin beforehand.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A sight previously thought to be science fiction is very real at a southeast Kansas City shopping center. Instead of a police officer, a security robot has been patrolling sidewalks and shoppers are taking notice.

Since Marshall the robot has been on the job, shoppers say the experiences have completely changed when they come to these stores. The robot can spend 23 hours a day monitoring the parking lot from all angles which gives people a new sense of protection and ease they don’t always have when out.

Marshall took over security at Brywood Centre in April. Before that, Karen White noticed a lot of trouble outside the shopping center.

“Sometimes it’d be concerning for your car like someone could take it or something,” White said.

Knowing now that Marshall is always watching, the risk of crime does not worry her or others as much.

“It made it very better, like you can’t be in the parking lot without seeing the robot,” White continued. “So, I think it scared them off.”

Every show with a suicide now has a disclaimer with a suicide hotline at the beginning. Is there any evidence that these warnings make a positive difference?

You have a better chance of snapping a photo of Bigfoot than you have of a voter fraud incident in your jurisdiction, but it infuriates me that the myth of widespread voter fraud persists.

The article states that these horrendous, disgusting infractions of health regulations have been documented out for at least the previous year, but given their severity, I'd imagine it's always been this way at Boar's Head production facilities.

I'm going to cook my deli meats from now on, no matter where they come from.

In a groundbreaking experiment, Japanese researchers transferred regenerative genes to fruit flies, leading to improved intestinal health and enhanced stem cell activity. This discovery opens new possibilities for anti-aging strategies in higher organisms, including humans, through targeted gene therapy.

I'm sharing this because it's fun, and can be a nice diversion from all the doomscrolling. There are lots of puzzles and random digital knick knacks. Enjoy!