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Gas prices are set to be the highest for any Election Day in U.S. history Tuesday, as the issue weighs heavily on voters’ minds.
The average gas price as of Monday is $4.17, according to data from AAA. That is roughly 37 cents higher than prices heading into the 2022 midterm election, which held the previous record for an Election Day.
The average price for regular gas in the week before the election of Nov. 8, 2022, was $3.80, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Affordability has been a top concern among voters during this election cycle, and polls show that gas prices in particular have been a pain point. Recent surveys show that many voters blame Republicans and their policies for the elevated costs.
An October poll from the New York Times and Siena University found that 75 percent of likely voters disapprove of the way President Donald Trump has handled gas prices. While 53 percent of respondents said they trust the Democratic Party to do a better job of handling gas prices, only 38 percent said they trust the Republican Party.
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Hours after her surprising endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Rep. Haley Stevens (D) sat down for an interview about the decision — but seemed unable to explain it.
During a nearly 15-minute-long segment with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Sunday, she struggled to answer repeated questions about her change of heart. She said multiple times that Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated her in the primary, had gotten “angrier,” without citing specifics.
On Sunday, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) said publicly that she talked with Stevens the night before the news broke and received assurances that Stevens would not endorse Rogers.
“What changed between then and this morning?” Cooper asked in the interview.
Stevens did not directly answer. She said she had woken up Sunday “clear-eyed, fresh and focused on what was in my heart, and that’s that.”
Cooper asked her again: “Did you talk to anybody? Did you have a long night of the soul? Were you up all night? Did you have a dream? What happened?”
She again did not pinpoint a reason. That pattern continued for the remainder of the segment — Cooper re-asking her the question and Stevens struggling to explain.
Near the interview’s end, Cooper said, “It’s just an interesting change, and I think a lot of people are curious to try to understand it.”
Stevens stayed silent for a few seconds.
“Was that a question, Anderson?” she asked.
“No, I wanted to see if you wanted to fill in the silence, but you don’t,” he said.
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Here is a quick primer on voting rights ahead of Tuesday’s midterms.
Federal law protects voting rights. Generally, this means:
- If the polls close while you’re in line, stay in line — you have the right to vote no matter how long the wait is.
- If you make a mistake on your ballot, ask a poll worker for a new one.
- If voting machines are down, request an emergency paper ballot.
- If you witness or experience intimidation or coercion at polls, report it to local or state election officials, the U.S. Department of Justice voting rights hotline (800-253-3931), or the nonpartisan Election Protection Hotline (866-OUR-VOTE). Intimidation, which can include aggressively questioning voters about their citizenship, is a federal crime.
Additionally, 36 states require some form of voter ID. Check your state’s requirements here. If you forget your ID, you may able be to vote by requesting a provisional ballot.
You may also be able to request a provisional ballot if you are not on the voter list at your polling location or an election official otherwise challenges your eligibility.
If you still have questions or experience issues on Election Day, contact 886-OUR-VOTE.
Find polling locations and opening times here.
A hearing Monday in the case of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who killed her three children by strangulation in 2023, ended without a firm commitment from prosecutors on whether they intend to retry her.
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge William Sullivan asked Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague whether the state had made a decision about how it would proceed after a mistrial was declared on Sept. 4.
Sprague said that “it would be a retrial” but that prosecutors could not declare that definitively because Sullivan has yet to rule on several motions related to the mistrial.
Kevin Reddington, an attorney for Clancy, criticized the prosecution’s lack of a decision.
“The ball is in Mr. Cruz’s court,” Reddington told the judge, referring to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz. “I am not going to have this woman incarcerated for the next year, or two, or three. I want a trial and I want it with you and I want it this spring.”
Sullivan is scheduled to rule on outstanding motions — and potentially set a trial date — at a Nov. 16 hearing. On Monday, he floated the idea of scheduling a theoretical trial for March.
“I’m thinking sometime in March, if we could do that — or earlier, if possible — but I think March is probably realistic,” Sullivan said.
Clancy’s case sparked widespread debate about postpartum mental health. Clancy admitted to killing Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months, but she has said she had heard voices telling her to kill them and herself. Her lawyers attributed her actions to postpartum-induced psychosis and asked jurors to find her not guilty by reason of insanity. The mistrial was declared after one juror declined to find her not guilty.
Wall Street spends a lot of time betting on what Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will do next. Over the weekend, the smart money should have been on his horse.
Deterministic, a 5-year-old horse Warsh partly owns, won the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky. He held off last year’s winner, Notable Speech, by three-quarters of a length.
Warsh’s stake in the horse Deterministic runs through a company, Vicarage Stable, which owns the horse along with Vincent Viola’s St. Elias Stable, Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and longtime horse owner and retired Goldman Sachs partner C. Steven Duncker.
Warsh, who attended Saturday’s race, can be seen in photos smiling broadly as Viola raised the trophy after the win.
In 2017, Warsh was elected to the Jockey Club, an exclusive racing organization. An article in Daily Racing Form noted he was a co-owner of Jump Sucker Stable.
Warsh’s latest foray into horse racing started over dinner one evening. “My friend, Kevin Warsh, and I were at a Jockey Club dinner,” Duncker told the racing site America’s Best Racing in 2024. Viola, he said, told them he’d “love to own some horses with you guys.”
Warsh, probably the wealthiest central bank leader in recent decades, reported the stake in Vicarage Stable valued at $100,001 to $250,000 in financial disclosures. Under his ethics agreement, Warsh resigned his position with the stable when he became chair in May but kept a financial interest, receiving “only passive investment income.”
A prominent Kentucky breeding farm, Lane’s End Farm, has said Deterministic will retire to stud after this season.
Heading into Election Day, the weather across most of the Intermountain West and Rockies is expected to be pleasant but cool. High pressure will be building in behind a storm system, allowing for sunshine.
The exception will be in Northern California, where a few downpours are likely as a new storm system moves ashore.
The main weather disruption nationwide will be a strong low-pressure system near Minneapolis, which will swing a band of downpours through the central states.
Here’s where there could be some rain Tuesday:
- Minneapolis will see showery weather and dropping temperatures during the afternoon.
- Green Bay, Wisconsin, will see light afternoon showers and a cool rain. Same with Milwaukee and Chicago.
- St. Louis will have a marginal severe-weather risk as a band of downpours and gusty thunderstorms move through in the afternoon.
- Kansas City may see an afternoon downpour or thunderstorm. There’s a low risk of a “cold air funnel” or two, but the tornado risk is minimal.
- Little Rock, Memphis and Paducah, Kentucky, will see strong afternoon/evening thunderstorms with a few hours of heavy rain.
- Houston will see showery weather at the tail end of a cold front.
Otherwise, a few light showers are possible in northern New England.
In Florida, a moist easterly flow once again will lead to scattered, slow-moving downpours and thunderstorms. A few pockets of flash flooding are possible, but it’s difficult to pinpoint where ahead of time.
The Affordable Care Act marketplace officially opened for business in most states Sunday. It’s one place where millions of Americans will see double-digit hikes in their health care premiums, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
Premiums on federal and state-run marketplaces will typically jump by about 15 percent next year, according to The Post’s analysis of proposed and finalized insurance rates. Health policy nonprofit KFF estimated an average premium hike of 13 percent based on finalized rates.
This marks the second straight year of double-digit rate increases and comes as Americans say the cost of living is one of their top issues heading into Tuesday’s midterm elections. Some of the biggest premium changes are expected to hit much of Arizona, New Mexico and Montana, where the average increases will be more than 20 percent.
For many enrollees across the country, subsidies will help blunt the full effect of the increases. But the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits last year has led to declining enrollment.
See what health insurance costs are going to look like in your area by exploring our interactive graphics.
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The post Haley Stevens struggles to explain her endorsement in CNN interview appeared first on Washington Post.
