10 things you need to know today: November 13, 2020
1.
U.S. public health officials reported 164,405 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, smashing the previous single-day record set on Wednesday. Thursday was the first day since the pandemic began where the country has seen more than 150,000 new infections. It was the eighth straight day with more than 100,000 cases. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 rose to 67,096, also a record, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Hospitalizations have doubled over the last five weeks. Deaths, which tend to rise shortly after increases in new cases, already average more than 1,000 per day. Numerous state and local governments are tightening restrictions on public and private gatherings to curb the virus' spread. "We're running out of time and we're running out of options," said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). [The New York Times]
2.
President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday was widely projected to win the battleground state of Arizona, adding its 11 electoral votes to his expected margin of victory over President Trump in the Electoral College. It takes 270 electoral votes to claim victory, and Biden now has 290 votes lined up. Biden is the second Democrat to flip long-red Arizona in seven decades. Trump is challenging election results and refusing to concede, although judges already have thrown out some of his cases. Trump now would have to have courts throw out enough votes to change the outcome in three states to claim victory, which legal experts say is extremely unlikely. Election officials say they have seen no evidence of fraud that would justify throwing out a significant number of ballots. [Reuters]
3.
Corey Lewandowski, an adviser to President Trump's campaign, has become the latest member of Trump's inner circle to test positive for the coronavirus. Lewandowski confirmed his diagnosis to CNN on Thursday, saying he was feeling well but would stay home as a precaution. Earlier this week, Trump political adviser David Bossie, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, and White House political affairs director Brian Jack also tested positive for the coronavirus. Lewandowski shared a photo aboard Air Force One on the day before Election Day alongside Bossie, among others, before a Trump rally in Wisconsin. He also appeared in a Pennsylvania news conference about the campaign's election challenges, and attended an election night party at the White House wearing a mask. [CNN]
4.
A coalition of election officials, including Homeland Security officials, on Thursday described last week's general election as "the most secure in American history." "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," according to the security group, which included the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Association of State Election Directors. "All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary," the group continued. The conclusions contradicted unsubstantiated claims by President Trump that voting fraud in multiple states could cost him the election. [USA Today, The Washington Post]
5.
A Pennsylvania appellate court on Thursday ruled election officials in the state can't count a small number of mail ballots from people who failed to provide proper identification by a Monday deadline. Two days before last week's election, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar pushed the deadline back by three days. Commonwealth Court President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt ruled Boockvar didn't have the authority to make that decision unilaterally, so those ballots must not be counted. State officials did not immediately say whether they would appeal. The decision marked a victory for the Trump campaign, which challenged Boockvar's decision, but the case had no impact on the state's vote tally because none of the affected votes had been included. President-elect Joe Biden leads the state by 54,000 votes. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
6.
President-elect Joe Biden and top congressional Democrats on Thursday called for a deal on a new coronavirus relief package before the end of the year, accusing Republicans of refusing to deal with skyrocketing COVID-19 cases. "It's like the house is burning down and they just refuse to throw water on it," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said of Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rejected Democrats' proposals as too expensive, saying Republicans were pitching stimulus spending in the $500 billion range. "I gather [Pelosi] and the Democratic leader in the Senate still are looking at something dramatically larger. That's not a place I think we're willing to go," McConnell said. [Reuters]
7.
The Justice Department has ended its internal investigation into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein's non-prosecution agreement over alleged sex crimes without taking any action against the prosecutors involved. The Justice Department said former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, then a U.S. attorney, exercised poor judgment in the 2008 deal, which let Epstein avoid federal sex trafficking charges. The investigation concluded Acosta "failed to make certain that the state of Florida intended to and would notify victims identified through the federal investigation about the state plea hearing." The DOJ concluded Epstein's victims "were not treated with the forthrightness and sensitivity" they deserved. [Reuters]
8.
Voter turnout in 2020 has broken both national and state records — and votes are still being counted. So far, 63.9 percent of Americans eligible to vote cast a ballot in the 2020 election, the highest portion since 1908's record 65.7 percent turnout. Turnout in all but eight states is projected to exceed 40-year records, with turnout in Minnesota and Wisconsin coming close to 80 percent. Overall, total 2020 turnout is projected to rise to 66.5 percent once all votes are tallied, the highest since 1900's 73.7 percent turnout among eligible voters. A much smaller voter pool was eligible to cast ballots in 1900 and 1908, as women, Asian Americans, and some Native Americans could not vote, and other non-white Americans were discouraged from voting through Jim Crow laws and intimidation. [The Washington Post]
9.
A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed on Tiran Island off the southern coast of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula during a peacekeeping mission on Thursday, killing five American service members. One French and one Czech citizen also were killed. One American reportedly survived. An investigation is underway but mechanical failure is suspected, Fox News reported, citing officials. "At this point, there is no information to indicate the crash was anything except an accident," said a statement from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Sinai, in which around 400 U.S. troops serve. The crash was the deadliest the U.S. military has suffered this year, with the casualties exceeding the four Americans killed in combat in Afghanistan this year. [Fox News, The New York Times]
10.
At least seven people died in flash floods in North Carolina on Thursday, as the same weather system driving Tropical Storm Eta dropped 10 inches of rain on some parts of the state. The flash floodwaters swept away at least four bridges and parts of 50 roads. Emergency responders found the bodies of three people at the Hiddenite Family Campground in Alexander County, about an hour north of Charlotte. An adult and a child remained missing. About 30 people were evacuated from the campground. Another person in Alexander County was killed in a car when a bridge collapsed. "It is hard on the rescuers, especially when you have to break the news to the family," Chris Bowman, the county's sheriff, said at a news conference. [The New York TImes]
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