Leads:
- The governor of California isn't going anywhere. Gavin Newsom emerged unscathed after yesterday's recall election. More than 64% of voters said "no" to recalling the Democratic governor while just under 36% voted to cut Newsom's term short. Californians who were unhappy with Newsom's aggressive response to the coronavirus pandemic last year gathered more than one and-a-half million signatures on petitions to put the recall question to voters.
- Democrats at the state capitol will start holding hearing to reform California's recall system. One political analyst says several lawmakers are ready to rip apart the recall process and put it back together. Today two election committee chairmen will begin the process of reforming recall elections.
- California no longer has “high” community levels of coronavirus transmission, according to data published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan credited widespread adaptation of health orders and California’s impressive vaccination rate — about 68% of the state’s residents are now fully vaccinated — as factors in driving case rates down in the face of delta.
Links:
- Comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Norm Macdonald is dead at the age of 61.Macdonald appeared on SNL from 1993 to 1998 and was best known for his "Weekend Update" segments. He'd been battling cancer privately for nine years but had been set to headline the New York Comedy Festival in November.
- We're learning more today about how the nation's top general may have prevented a nuclear attack. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley reportedly took steps to make sure President Trump didn't launch any nukes before he left office. That's just one of the revelations in a new book out next week by veteran journalist Bob Woodward and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.