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Daily Archives: August 5, 2020

Trump’s radical lawsuit against Nevada’s vote-by-mail law, explained

Vox: “On Monday [August 3, 200), Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) signed legislation intended to ensure that voters in his state can still cast a ballot during the Covid-19 pandemic. Among other things, the new law (known as AB4) provides that registered Nevada voters will automatically receive a ballot in the mail, a common practice in Western states. It also requires the state to provide a minimum number of polling places for in-person voters, both on Election Day and for early voting. President Trump’s response to this new law was apoplectic. On Tuesday, one day after AB4 became law, Trump’s lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party, seeking to block it. Their legal complaint in Donald J. Trump for President v. Cegavske is not a model of careful legal argumentation. It claims, for example, that AB4 changed Nevada law to allow mailed-in ballots without postmarks to be counted so long as they arrive within three days of Election Day. In fact, Nevada law already allowed such ballots to be counted. An entire section of the complaint focuses on the fact that AB4 was enacted “on a weekend vote” — the state House approved the bill on a Friday, but the Senate passed it on a Sunday — without explaining how the day of the bill’s passage was relevant to its legality…”

World’s Biggest Landlord Buys World’s Biggest Genealogy Website

Gizmodo: “The Blackstone Group will buy a majority stake in the genealogy website Ancestry.com in a deal worth $4.7 billion, according to a press release published Wednesday. Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, is the world’s largest landlord and Ancestry is the world’s largest genealogy website, with over 6 billion records on family history in… Continue Reading

How to sign a PDF for free, and 4 other tricks that don’t require Adobe Acrobat

Fast Company: “Whether you’re using Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader or fully functional Acrobat, most of us can agree that while reading PDFs using these tools isn’t so bad, once you start trying to actually work with PDFs, things can get clunky quickly. It doesn’t help that the programs launch slower than a frozen Buick in… Continue Reading

In These Neighborhoods, the Jobless Rate May Top 30 Percent

The New York Times: “The economic damage from the coronavirus is most visible in areas like Midtown Manhattan, where lunch spots have closed, businesses have gone dark and once-crowded sidewalks have emptied. But some of the worst economic pain lies in other neighborhoods, in the places where workers who’ve endured the broadest job losses live.… Continue Reading

Wireless Charging Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen

Medium OneZero: “Wireless charging is increasingly common in modern smartphones, and there’s even speculation that Apple might ditch charging via a cable entirely in the near future. But the slight convenience of juicing up your phone by plopping it onto a pad rather than plugging it in comes with a surprisingly robust environmental cost. According… Continue Reading

Disinformation campaigns are murky blends of truth, lies and sincere beliefs – lessons from the pandemic

The Conversation: “The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned an infodemic, a vast and complicated mix of information, misinformation and disinformation. In this environment, false narratives – the virus was “planned,” that it originated as a bioweapon, that COVID-19 symptoms are caused by 5G wireless communications technology – have spread like wildfire across social media and other… Continue Reading

Public to Private Equity in the United States: A Long-Term Look

Morgan Stanley: “Over the past quarter century there has been a marked shift in U.S. equities from public markets to private markets controlled by buyout and venture capital firms. This change has had reverberations for asset managers, investors, executives, and policy makers. In this report we seek to answer the following questions: What have been… Continue Reading

Treasury and Federal Reserve Financial Assistance in Title IV of the CARES Act

Treasury and Federal Reserve Financial Assistance in Title IV of the CARES Act (P.L.116-136) Updated August 5, 2020: “The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act;H.R. 748)was signed into law as P.L. 116-136on March 27, 2020,to assist those affected by the economic impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19). This assistance is targeted to consumers,… Continue Reading

Why Markets Don’t Seem to Care If the Economy Stinks

The Big Picture – Barry Ritholtz: “The economy we each experience – local, personal and (for the most part) not publicly traded – has been awful. To explain why these subjective experiences are not weighing down equity markets, we must look more closely into the intersection between the weakest industry sectors in 2020 and their… Continue Reading

How search data can inform larger online business

SearchEngineLand: “Decision makers in their respective silos are generally unaware of the value in the data Google shares so it’s your job to disperse this knowledge across your organization. Sebastian Compagnucci – “As an SEO I’m constantly utilizing keyword search volume data to help make more informed decisions about clients’ online presence. But the reality… Continue Reading

Senators Push for Continued Telework, Contractor Leave in COVID-19 Relief Talks

Government Executive: “As lawmakers continue negotiations over the next round of coronavirus response legislation, senators are pushing congressional leadership to include additional provisions protecting federal employees and contractors. In a July 31 letter, a bipartisan group of 22 senators, led by Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch… Continue Reading

Five high schoolers named National Student Poets

AP: Five high school juniors, residing everywhere from Lake Worth, Florida, to Saratoga, California, have been named National Student Poets. A partnership between the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the student poet program was launched in 2011, with winners contributing to community programs and and… Continue Reading