From Climate Exhortation to Climate Execution - The Inflation Reduction Act finally offers a chance for widespread change. - link
Kirk Douglas, the Guitarist for the Roots, Revamps the Holiday Classics - A bona-fide guitar hero puts a fresh spin on some holiday classics. And the former United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith on reading poetry across the political divide. - link
The Water Wranglers of the West Are Struggling to Save the Colorado River - Farmers, bureaucrats, and water negotiators converged on Caesars Palace, in Las Vegas, to fight over the future of the drought-stricken Southwest. - link
The Devastating New History of the January 6th Insurrection - The House report describes both a catastrophe and a way forward. - link
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Critical Visit to Washington, D.C. - The Ukrainian President’s trajectory is often cast as surprising, but what makes him compelling as a political leader is the former comic’s talent for exposing the crux of the matter. - link
From Vox
Georgia is a perfect example of the growing power of Asian American voters -
Voters rally at a “Get Out the Vote” event hosted by the AAPI Victory Fund and Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 3. | Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The group, once again, had strong turnout — a sign that 2020 was no anomaly.
While Georgia’s overall voter turnout didn’t change much between the 2018 and 2022 midterms, at least one group saw some pretty significant gains: Asian American and Pacific Islander voters.
According to Emory University political scientist Bernard Fraga, the percentage of eligible AAPI voters who participated in Georgia’s November elections went from 34.9 percent in 2018 to 37.4 percent in 2022, making for the biggest jump of any group this cycle.
Fascinating GA turnout data. AAPI voters had the biggest improvement over 2018 turnout levels. https://t.co/68mLPem1cX
Estimates from political data firms including Catalist and TargetSmart also found a similar trend when it came to the number of voters who turned out in the state. According to TargetSmart, there was an 18 percent increase in the number of AAPI voters who turned out between 2018 and 2022, outpacing increases among voters overall. The number of white and Latino voters who turned out between the two cycles also went up, by 2 percent and 3 percent respectively, while the number of Black voters who turned out declined by 7 percent.
AAPI vote share increased over 2018, too, rising to 2.3 percent of the vote from 2 percent, per TargetSmart. (The firm uses voters’ self-identification and modeling to determine how many voters are in different racial groups.)
The turnout uptick in Georgia suggests that the gains AAPI voters have made in recent cycles are enduring ones, though we don’t have national data just yet. While Georgia processes its general election voter information relatively quickly, other states likely won’t share theirs until March and April of the coming year.
What we know so far, however, indicates that AAPI voters continue to be engaged in this key battleground, and others. In the past, AAPI turnout was often low, spurring both parties to limit the time and resources spent reaching out to those voters. As their population and voter engagement has increased, however, they’ve become a pivotal group for Republicans and Democrats to court.
Despite being a small slice of the electorate in many states, AAPI voters increasingly have the numbers to swing tight races, as Georgia’s latest presidential election made clear when AAPI voters helped make the difference for Democrats. Their eligible voter population is also expanding quickly, growing 9 percent nationally between 2018 and 2022, and nearly 14 percent in Georgia in that same time.
This cycle, AAPI voters were once again part of the coalition that helped Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock win reelection in Georgia, with 59 percent of the group supporting his candidacy in the general election, according to exit polls. In the runoff, as much as 78 percent of AAPI voters backed Warnock, according to a survey from the Asian American Legal Defense Fund.
AAPI voters’ strong participation rates this year indicate that they are solidifying their political influence in the state and beyond, making clear that past gains — like in 2020, when AAPI voter turnout surged in Georgia — were not anomalies.
“Heading into the election, we were like, okay, we want to make sure that 2020 was not just a fluke,” says Christine Chen, the executive director of APIAVote.
The results in Georgia point to strong gains this cycle
A lot of turnout data is still not available, but experts note that the information so far, including Georgia’s results, indicates strong engagement among AAPI voters nationally.
In many of the states that have already disclosed voter information, AAPI voters increased their vote share relative to the 2018 midterms. In addition to Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon all saw AAPI voters holding a higher share of the overall general election vote, according to Catalist.
Additionally, at the national level, there was a 20 percent increase in AAPI voters who turned out early in 2022 relative to 2018, compared to the 13 percent increase in early voters overall, per TargetSmart. This uptick could point to higher turnout levels from AAPI voters in general.
“We are seeing correlations between surges in early vote turnout and overall turnout, so it would not be surprising to find that the AAPI gains over 2018 in early vote turnout are reflected in overall turnout as well,” Tom Bonier, the CEO of TargetSmart, told Vox.
As the group’s population has grown, both parties have ramped up their outreach to AAPI voters, though both still need to do more to lock them down. While AAPI voters continued to skew Democratic in 2022, a higher proportion voted for Republicans this cycle than in 2018, per exit polls. That shift comes as Republicans have dialed up their investment this cycle, including opening more community centers in districts with higher concentrations of AAPI voters, and recruiting AAPI candidates. According to a July Asian American Voter Survey conducted by APIAVote, AAPI Data, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an increasing segment of the group is also identifying as independent, a sign that they’re still open to both parties.
AAPI voter engagement in Georgia — which first surged following investments by Stacey Abrams’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign — has continued to grow for a number of reasons including ongoing local organizing, the impact that voters saw themselves having in 2020, and the rise in AAPI political leaders and representation in public office. The state legislature now includes a historic number of AAPI lawmakers, a development that has been meaningful for many of the voters they represent.
“After seeing the success in 2020 and the Georgia runoff, our community was finally recognized as a force, and I think people took pride in that,” says Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, the executive director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund.
What to know about the most important elections in 2023 -
Then-Kentucky Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear delivers a speech at the Kentucky Democratic Party election night watch party in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 5, 2019. | Bryan Woolston/AP
It’s an off-year, but there are a few big races in a handful of states.
The midterms are over and the 2024 presidential election is still far in the future, which means one thing: more elections in between.
2023 will be jam-packed with showcases of American democracy as voters in a handful of states cast their ballots in key races that will have far-reaching consequences. There may not be as many elections in an odd-numbered year as an even-numbered one, but not to worry — there will still be a heavy serving of punditry and almost as many negative ads. These are seven of the most important political contests of the coming year:
1. The Kentucky governor’s race
The highest-profile matchup is Kentucky’s gubernatorial election, where Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear will face the winner of a crowded Republican primary in the Bluegrass State. The top Republican candidate is state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. If elected, Cameron, a Mitch McConnell protégé, would be the first African American Republican elected governor of any state since Reconstruction.
Although Cameron received a Trump endorsement earlier this year, it is unclear what the notoriously fickle former president might do on his behalf. Two other Republican statewide elected officials are running for governor: state auditor Mike Harmon and state agriculture commissioner Ryan Quarles. Former Trump UN Ambassador Kelly Craft, whose husband is a billionaire coal executive, is also running.
Regardless of whom Beshear faces, it will be a key test for Democrats in the most pro-Trump state that currently has a Democratic governor. Trump won Kentucky by over 25 points in 2020 and the state legislature now has a GOP supermajority. Beshear has been a very popular governor and won plaudits for his handling of natural disasters in the state, but the state’s partisan lean is still a major obstacle.
2. The Louisiana governor’s race
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards is term-limited in this red state, which means Republicans are already lining up for their chance to win back the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge and political journalists are already lining up their reporting trips to New Orleans.
Republican Jeff Landry, the current state attorney general, is mounting a bid, and incumbent Sen. John Kennedy is actively pondering a run. A host of other prominent Republicans could jump in as well, including multiple statewide elected officials and at least one member of Congress.
Although Louisiana is almost as Republican as Kentucky, the state’s “jungle primary” law does give Democrats a puncher’s chance. All candidates, regardless of party, face off in an October primary, and the top two advance to a runoff in November if no single candidate wins 50 percent of the vote. This was the formula Edwards used in both of his wins: The old-school Southern Democrat consolidated his party’s vote in the first round of voting while Republicans attacked each other, emerging with flawed and dinged-up candidates. Edwards then used his mix of economic populism and social conservatism (he’s staunchly anti-abortion) to get to the finish line in both runoffs. The question is whether any other Democrat can replicate his approach.
3. The Mississippi governor’s race
Incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is favored in a state that has consistently voted red at the national level in recent decades. However, Mississippi is not exactly a Republican bastion. The state is nearly 40 percent African American and Democrats have been able to stay somewhat competitive in major races in the state. In 2019, state Attorney General Jim Hood only lost by 5 percent to Reeves, and, in 2020, Democratic Senate candidate Mike Espy only lost by 10 percent against incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Further, Reeves is one of the most unpopular governors in the country due to an ongoing scandal over the welfare fraud that led to funds earmarked for poor families in the state being spent on projects like a volleyball stadium promoted by former NFL quarterback Brett Favre.
The situation leaves Reeves open to a primary challenge from fellow Republicans. It’s still a major uphill battle for Democrats.
4. Virginia legislative elections
Every state legislative seat in both chambers in the Old Dominion is up for grabs in what will be a crucial partisan battle in 2023. Currently, the state capitol in Richmond is narrowly divided, with Republicans holding a 52-48 majority in the House of Delegates and Democrats holding a 21-19 majority in the state Senate.
The results will be a major test of whether Republican Glenn Youngkin’s win in the 2021 gubernatorial race was a fluke, or Virginia is still somewhat of a purple state. Youngkin’s win against former Gov. Terry McAuliffe was heralded by national Republicans as a model for the GOP in the post-Trump era to try to win back suburban voters alienated by the former president. However, Virginia has long been trending toward Democrats, and it may simply be that Youngkin’s win was a result of the unique political environment of 2021, defined by a backlash over school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic and President Joe Biden’s political struggles at the time.
With Youngkin also looming as a potential national candidate, the results of the legislative races will be a key test of his popularity at home — a majority of Virginians currently approve of his performance in office, according to a recent poll. A legislature stacked against him could impede his political agenda during the remainder of his four-year term and his case for higher office.
Some Virginia voters won’t have to wait until November for a key election. The new year will start with a special election on January 10 for the state Senate seat formerly held by Republican Jen Kiggans, who ousted Democrat Rep. Elaine Luria in November to win a congressional seat. A win for Democrats here would give them additional breathing room to block legislation in a chamber where Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears can break ties.
5. New Jersey legislative elections
New Jersey voters will go to the polls to elect both chambers of their state legislature, the General Assembly (what they call their House) and the state Senate. Republicans made significant gains in the Garden State in 2021, picking up six seats in the General Assembly and one in the state Senate. Most notably, Steve Sweeney, the longtime state Senate president, suffered a shocking loss to a Republican who barely campaigned in his South Jersey district.
But it will take a pretty big wave for New Jersey Republicans to win a majority of the state legislature for the first time in 20 years. Even with the wins in 2021, they still need seven seats in the General Assembly and five in the Senate, in a state that is still heavily Democratic, and incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy has regained some of his popularity with voters after his own close call in 2021.
6. Wisconsin spring elections
Wisconsin will see two important elections this spring, with its scheduled statewide election for the state’s Supreme Court and a special election for a state Senate seat in suburban Milwaukee on April 4.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is currently split 4-3, with four conservative justices and three liberals. The retirement of conservative Justice Patience Roggensack gives liberals the potential to retake the majority on a state judicial body that is expected to hear a number of key election-related cases in the coming years.
The special election will be held in a Republican-leaning district that has become more favorable for Democrats in recent years. A Republican win would hand the GOP a supermajority in the state Senate, giving them 22 of the chamber’s 33 seats, with the ability to even further impede the agenda of recently reelected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Republicans will be favored unless state Rep. Janel Brandtjen wins her GOP primary. Brandtjen is a militant election denier who has been kicked out of the state House GOP caucus. If she won the nomination, it could scramble the race — after all, election-denying candidates fared poorly in the midterms, handing Democrats wins in a number of competitive races they might have otherwise lost.
7. Special elections TBD
One certain thing in American politics is that there will always be special elections.
Politicians die (seven did in the 117th Congress), get indicted, or simply get bored with their jobs. Sometimes these elections are high-stakes and other times they are banal. But it’s likely any federal special election will be fraught next year, with Democrats having a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate and Republicans having a five-seat majority in the House, meaning any change in membership in either chamber will alter the balance of power. There is already one scheduled in a safe Democratic seat in Virginia in February to replace Rep. Don McEachin, who died in November, and we have no idea what else is coming. But, with such narrow margins on Capitol Hill, they could carry extra high stakes.
Winter storms put the US power grid to the test. It failed. -
People walk past workers attempting to repair a water line in Buffalo, New York, on December 26, 2022. | Joed Viera/AFP via Getty Images
America’s aging energy infrastructure and reliance on fossil fuels pushed local power grids to the brink.
Two-thirds of the US population faced snowstorms, high winds, or frigid winter weather over the Christmas holiday weekend, leading to at least 52 deaths and pushing the electricity grid to the brink of failure. And in many instances, it did. At its peak on Christmas, an estimated 1.7 million businesses and homes faced power outages.
It was the coldest Christmas in recent memory, and that meant a predictable surge in heating demand as temperatures dropped. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides power for 10 million people, for instance, said demand was running nearly 35 percent higher than on a typical winter day.
In many states, utilities and grid operators only narrowly averted greater disaster by asking customers to conserve their energy or prepare for rolling blackouts (when a utility voluntarily but temporarily shuts down electrical power to avoid the entire system shutting down). Some of the largest operators, including Tennessee Valley Authority, Duke Energy, and National Grid used rolling blackouts throughout the weekend. Texas also barely got through the emergency. On Friday, the US Department of Energy permitted the state to ignore environmental emissions standards to keep the power on.
One major transmission company that regulators thought would be well-prepared for the winter storm was caught off-guard: PJM Interconnection, which serves 65 million people in 13 eastern states, faced triple the power plant outages than it expected.
Officials probably could have met the higher demand if not for another predictable event that overwhelmed the system. Because of the extreme conditions, coal and gas plants and pipelines froze up too, taking them out of commission to deliver energy in areas that run mostly on gas.
The events over Christmas show how utilities and regulators continue to overestimate the reliability of fossil fuels to deliver power in a winter storm.
Frozen natural gas infrastructure cut into needed supply
It wasn’t that the country didn’t have enoughgas to go around to meet the high demand. There was plenty of gas, but the infrastructure proved vulnerable to the extreme weather. Enough wells and pipes were frozen or broken to bring the grid to its brink.
For instance, for TVA, high winds, and cold temperatures affected equipment at its biggest coal plant and some of its natural gas-powered plants, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “At one point Friday, TVA lost more than 6,000 megawatts of power generation or nearly 20% of its load at the time, with both units at TVA’s Cumberland Fossil Plant offline and other problems at some gas generating units,” the outlet reported.
It’s too early to know exactly the cause of power failures in every state, but some utilities struggled to generate enough power to meet demand. Early data from BloombergNEF shows that total heating and power-generation fuels for the county were about 10 percent below normal as of Monday.
The rolling blackouts and energy conservation alerts stemmed from the one factor big utility companies could still influence: consumer demand. Utilities asked millions of people to keep their energy usage low to get through the storms, by delaying laundry and dishwashers and keeping the thermostat running low.
This is a broad strategy known as demand response, where utilities attempt to shape electricity use by urging customers to change their energy use to avoid peak hours. But even those consumer alerts to reduce energy usage are a blunt, imperfect instrument. As my colleague Umair Irfan explained, rolling blackouts result in power reduction “across the board without regard for who is most vulnerable, what parts of the power grid are closest to the brink, or where the most effective cuts can be made.”
A focus on slashing energy demand has worked before for specific events — like when California and Texas experienced heat waves earlier this year. But there are better ways the US can prepare for peak demand in a winter storm or a heat wave.Part of the answer is better demand response, but that requires longer-term infrastructure investments in energy efficiency and smart meters.
This latest storm shows, yet again, that fossil fuels aren’t especially reliable in extreme weather.Yet so much of energy politics focuses purely on supply — the mining and extraction, and how much oil, gas, and coal is in reserve. It’s often taken for granted that this supply will always be accessible. In the meantime, we’ve failed to build more important infrastructure throughout our energy system; more energy storage, distributed power generation, interconnections across the major power grids, redundancy, and demand response are all needed. Simply adding more gas or coal to the grid won’t prevent blackouts from happening again in the future.
From The Hindu: Sports
ICC rankings: Ashwin moves up to joint fourth, Iyer jumps 10 spots to be 16th - Ashwin has moved up one slot and is joint-fourth among bowlers along with teammate Jasprit Bumrah after finishing with six wickets in the match
Arshdeep Singh among nominees for ICC Emerging Cricketer of Year Award - Arshdeep has made the shortlist less than six months after making his international debut
Morning Digest | Mock drills across States check COVID-readiness; 18 States yet to receive ₹4,700 crore in MGNREGS wages from Centre, and more - Here’s a select list of stories to read before you start your day
Australia's Cameron Green ruled out of Sydney test with broken finger - Green was struck in the right index finger by an Anrich Nortje ball and retired hurt late on day two at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 27
Government gives official recognition to Esports - Reacting to the report of its inclusion as a mainline sport, Lokesh Suji, director, Esports Federation of India and vice-president of Asian Esports Federation, said the efforts of the fraternity had finally borne fruit
From The Hindu: National News
MUDA to build underpasses across ORR at various junctions - The aim is to reduce traffic bottlenecks and prevent accidents
Former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh released from prison - On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court had refused to stay its order granting him bail.
Nitish Kumar, Congress to undertake pan-Bihar yatras from January 5 - Congress is inspired by its leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra; the Chief Minister will embark on a yatra once again to create awareness on the benefits of prohibition
TV serial on Kanchi Paramacharya to be telecast from January 7 -
The brainchild behind ‘Kantara,’ ‘KGF 2’ and ‘Salaar’: A deep-dive into the workings of Hombale Films - Co-founder Vijay Kiragandur talks about their unprecedented success of 2022, and how production house Hombale Films plans to invest ₹3000 crore in the entertainment industry in the next five years
From BBC: Europe
Pope Francis says predecessor Benedict is very ill - The Vatican says the ex-Pope’s condition has worsened and Pope Francis asks pilgrims to pray.
Ukraine war: Civilians flee Kherson as Russian attacks intensify - The Ukrainian city, liberated from Russian control last month, is coming under heavy bombardment.
Russian troops able to freeze sperm for free - lawyer - When Russia called up 300,000 reservists for Ukraine, men asked clinics to freeze their sperm.
Russia bans oil sales to countries using price cap - The oil price cap, agreed by Western countries, aims to reduce Russian revenue for its war in Ukraine.
Spain announces €10bn help to fight rising prices - PM Pedro Sánchez backs aid for households amid an energy crisis prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
From Ars Technica
Some day soon we might be making popcorn with infrared poppers - It’s fast, energy efficient, environmentally friendly compared to conventional heating - link
New GeForce RTX 3050 variant offers the same performance but lower power use - GA107 die has just the right number of CUDA cores for an RTX 3050. - link
No more TikTok on House of Representatives’ smartphones - Security issues make the app “high risk,” according to House cybersecurity office. - link
Musk contradicts Twitter safety chief, disavows statement as “fake news” - It’s still unclear which Twitter exec was telling the truth. - link
Leaker posts an early, canceled 2D version of the infamous Duke Nukem Forever - The game’s long, convoluted history gets longer and more convoluted. - link
From Jokes Subreddit
Doctor : I’m sorry, but we had to remove your colon. -
