memeorandum: Supreme Court considers Harvard and University of North Carolina's use of affirmative action. Here's what you need to know (Ariane de Vogue/CNN)

2:50 PM ET, October 31, 2022

Top Items:

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Twitter is planning to start charging $20 per month for verification … Now that he owns Twitter, Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave. — The directive is to change Twitter Blue …

Siva Vaidhyanathan / The Guardian:

Like Trump, Elon Musk reveals a vapid mind super-charged by wealth and ego — Musk, despite his wealth, good fortune and global influence, is not a serious person - but he is toying with dangerous ideas — t took less than 48 hours for Elon Musk to reveal just how dangerous his new toy can be to this world.

Michael Tomasky / New Republic:

Paul Pelosi Almost Died, and Most Republicans Don't Have a Big Problem With That — Nothing in particular was happening on July 31, 2021, that should have given Kevin McCarthy's words any special weight. It was a Saturday. The House of Representatives was on summer break.

Discussion: TheBlaze, The Daily Dot, Newsweek, Boing Boing, HuffPost, The Wrap, Fox News, Newsbusters and The Hill

Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: The next big precedent SCOTUS is set to overturn

Discussion: American Errata

New York Times:

Senate Control Hinges on Neck-and-Neck Races, Times/Siena Poll Finds — The contests are close in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Many voters want Republicans to flip the Senate, but prefer the Democrat in their state. — Control of the Senate rests on a knife's edge …

Discussion: CNBC, National Review, DNyuz, PoliticusUSA, New York Post, Outside the Beltway, Washington Times, Bloomberg and The Forward

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Final AJC midterm poll: Kemp leads Abrams, deadlocked Senate race — Gov. Brian Kemp maintains a solid lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams in the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, while the race between U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker remains a neck-and-neck contest that could be headed toward a runoff.

Discussion: The Hill, New York Magazine, Breitbart, FiveThirtyEight, Washington Examiner and Political Wire

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Times/Siena Polls Show Democrats Slightly Ahead in Key Senate Races — Respondents said they preferred Republicans to control the Senate, but individual matchups showed a different story. — Eight days before the election, we have our final* midterm surveys: polls of the four states likeliest to determine control of the Senate.

Discussion: Fox News, DNyuz, Raw Story and Political Wire

Politico:
Senate control could go either way despite Republican momentum

Discussion: Associated Press, The Michigan Daily and New York Times

Nora Mishanec / San Francisco Chronicle:

Ex-girlfriend of suspect in Paul Pelosi attack says he struggled with mental illness, drugs, believed he was ‘Jesus for a year’ — The imprisoned longtime partner of David DePape, the suspect in the attack on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, said Sunday that mental illness …

Discussion: HotAir, The Federalist, Twitchy, The Post Millennial, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Caller, CBS News, Kurt Nimmo on Geopolitics, Breitbart and Political Wire

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump: Attack on Paul Pelosi a ‘terrible thing’

Discussion: CNN, Mediaite, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, CD Media, New York Post, Insider, HuffPost, FOX8 WGHP, Lucianne, BizPac Review and Vanity Fair

Eugene Scott / Washington Post:
Republicans amplify misinformation, falsehoods about attack on Paul Pelosi

Discussion: Media Matters for America, The National, Jezebel, Boing Boing, Political Wire, DNyuz, Lucian Truscott Newsletter and Bloomberg

CBS News:
Suspect in Paul Pelosi attack had list of targets, law enforcement sources say

Discussion: NBC News, VICE, Fox News, Gizmodo, CNN, The Daily Wire, PinkNews, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Forbes, DNyuz, Raw Story, IJR, The Hill, New York Times, ABC7 and New Yorker

NBC News:

Biden lost temper with Zelenskyy in June phone call when Ukrainian leader asked for more aid — It's become routine since Russia invaded Ukraine: President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak by phone whenever the U.S. announces a new package of military assistance for Kyiv.

Discussion: Insider, Politico, National Review, Washington Examiner, The Western Journal, Breitbart, IJR, New York Post, DNyuz and Mediaite

The Intercept:

Leaked Documents Outline DHS's Plans to Police Disinformation — The Department of Homeland Security is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents …

Discussion: The Post Millennial, Washington Examiner, Steve Bannon's War Room, Ace of Spades HQ, The Daily Caller and Twitchy, more at Techmeme »

Mike Allen / Axios:

First look: Mike Pence's new book reveals key moment before Jan. 6 — In former Vice President Mike Pence's “So Help Me God” — out Nov. 15 — he describes a scene in November 2020, just after the election, when he and former President Trump met in the Oval Office to review legal challenges with the campaign's lawyers.

Discussion: USA Today, HuffPost, The Guardian, Mediaite, Washington Examiner, Raw Story and The Hill

Rolling Stone:

Dr. Oz's Campaign Is Stocked With Jan. 6ers — The Republican has kept his distance from the “stolen election” lie while running for Senate, but records obtained by Rolling Stone reveal some of his staffers have embraced it wholeheartedly — and even attended the Jan. 6 rally to overturn the election

Discussion: Raw Story and The Hill

Ally Mutnick / Politico:
The Michigan race testing the limits of a GOP wave

Discussion: Raw Story and Reason

Washington Post:
Election denier Mark Finchem's sleeper campaign closes in on MAGA prize

Discussion: NBC News, Raw Story, CBS News and Election Law Blog

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Ambitious GOP senators dive into midterms while Trump weighs his 2024 plans

Discussion: Raw Story

Associated Press:

AP source: Biden to float windfall tax on energy producers — President Joe Biden on Monday will raise the possibility of imposing a ‘windfall tax’ on energy companies, as his administration aims to combat high gas prices just days before the midterm elections.

Discussion: The Hill, USA Today, Bloomberg, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The Guardian and Fox Business

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

In final debate, Kemp won't say whether he'd sign new abortion limits — Gov. Brian Kemp wouldn't say at Sunday's Channel 2 Action News debate whether he would sign new abortion limits into law if he's elected to a second term, weeks after he said at a previous showdown that he “would not” …

Discussion: HotAir, HuffPost, Fox News, The Daily Caller, IJR, The Guardian, Albuquerque Journal, InsiderAdvantageGeorgia, DNyuz and Political Wire

Jack Nicas / Reuters:

Lula's victory likely means big changes for Brazil, though his specific plans are vague. — Maria Magdalena Arréllaga for The New York Times — Maria Magdalena Arrellaga for The New York Times — Victor Venco Moriyama for the New York Times — Maria Magdalena Arrellaga for The New York Times

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Axios, Reuters, The Forward, HotAir, Pledge Times, Anadolu Ajansı …, BNamericas.com, The Hill, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, USA Today, Gizmodo, CNBC, DNyuz, The Gateway Pundit, Politico, NBC News, PinkNews, NPR, Steve Bannon's War Room, Vox, The Guardian, Albuquerque Journal, New Statesman, Latin America Daily Briefing, Andrew Korybko's Newsletter, Balloon Juice, The National Interest, Just Security, CBS News, middleeastmonitor.com, Raw Story, The Brazilian Report, Forbes, The Guardian, Boing Boing, Insider, Deadline, Blue Virginia, Emerging World, Associated Press, Metro.co.uk, New York Times, Eschaton, Euractiv, The Daily Beast, Inquirer News, TASS, The Daily Beast, HuffPost, Foreign Policy, Associated Press, USA Today, UPI, Latino Rebels, Fox News, Inquirer News, Raw Story, Just The News, Al Jazeera, The Brazilian Report, Associated Press, The Hollywood Reporter, The Position of The People, CD Media, Atlantic Council, Insider, Rolling Stone, Cyprus Mail, The Times of Israel, CBS News and The Friday Times

Matthew Kassel / Jewish Insider:

Laxalt campaign paid thousands to political operative linked to Twitter account that denigrated Jews, women — A Twitter account connected to former Laxalt staffer Michael Pecjak has compared abortion to the Holocaust and claimed that “Jews are not a religious sect and are a cult,” among other comments

Discussion: Axios

Tierney Sneed / CNN:

Trump asks Supreme Court to stop IRS from turning over his tax returns to the House — Former President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to put on hold the release of his tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service to a Democratic-led House committee.

Discussion: Insider, CNBC, NBC News, Washington Post, The Hill, Associated Press, ABC News, Washington Examiner, Fox News, New York Times, New York Post, Metro.co.uk, Reuters, PoliticusUSA, Washington Times, Axios, Just The News and DNyuz

David Weigel / Semafor:

Happy Halloween, there's a candy-colored fentanyl scare on the campaign trail — MESA, Ariz. - It was the talk of Republican candidates over Halloween weekend: A rumor that their trick-or-treating kids might get candy-colored fentanyl from strangers. — “The cartels, they're dressing …

Discussion: Capitol Fax.com, Florida Politics, NPR, Tampa Bay Times and Mediaite

Bolts:

‘The Arpaio of the East’ Faces His First Opponent in 12 Years. Is Anyone Watching? — The official line was that Mark Trafton's suicide came out of nowhere. — A guard found Trafton hanging in his cell just before 5 a.m. on May 3, 2019, inside the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford …

Kurt Schlichter / Frontpage Mag:

Everyone is Laughing at the Ridiculous Pelosi Big Lie — Meet the underwear-clad MAGA assassin from a hippie commune in Berkeley. — How dare you reject the Official Approved Narrative parroted by the regime media about the weird Schiff that went down at Casa de Pelosi the other night.

Discussion: The Liberty Loft, IJR and DNyuz

Doug Bock Clark / ProPublica:

A County Elections Director Stood Up to Locals Who Believe the Voting System Is Rigged. They Pushed Back Harder. — Even in a county where Trump won more than 70% of the 2020 vote, local election deniers have mounted a campaign to access voting machines and slash the elections director's pay.

Shelby Talcott / Semafor:

Republican donors are being forced into an agonizing choice between Trump and DeSantis — Shelby is a Political Reporter for Semafor, joining us from the Daily Caller. Morgan is a Political and National Security Reporter for Semafor, joining us from The Hill.

Discussion: Raw Story and New York Times

NBC News:

Capitol Officer Harry Dunn testifies Oath Keepers weren't helping him on Jan. 6 — “We have dozens of officers down, they're taking them out on stretchers. Ya'll are f—ing us up,” Harry Dunn says he told rioters. — WASHINGTON — Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn testified during …

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, USA Today and Law & Crime

David Dayen / American Prospect:

The Crime Wave That Republicans Defend — Corporate theft and fraud is not only tolerated by the GOP, it's shielded. Yet Democrats rarely use this to attack Republican messaging on crime. — CEOs of some of the nation's largest banks testify before the Senate Banking Committee during …

Discussion: Insider