| | | | | | | Presented By Wells Fargo | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Aug 30, 2022 | | Good Tuesday morning. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,495 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Biden-Trump split screen |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | Call it a 2020 flashback — or a foreshadow of '24: - Residents of Wilkes-Barre, in northeastern Pennsylvania, are getting dueling visits this week — a gun-safety event with President Biden today, then a rally with former President Trump on Saturday, Axios' Josh Kraushaar reports.
Why it matters: Pennsylvania is one of the biggest political battlegrounds on the midterm map. But Trump-endorsed candidates have jeopardized the GOP's ability to gain ground in this perennial swing state. - Wilkes-Barre is close to Biden's hometown of Scranton, a onetime Democratic stronghold that's become a lot more Republican lately. It's located in one of the most hotly contested swing districts on this year's midterm map.
Biden holds a White House event this afternoon at Wilkes University, with a speech focused on reducing gun crime. - Trump holds his first midterm general-election rally over Labor Day weekend, at an arena three miles down the road.
By the numbers: Luzerne County, where Wilkes-Barre is located, featured one of the biggest pro-Trump swings of any major county between 2012 and 2020. Former President Obama carried the county with 52% of the vote in his re-election, but Trump won 57% of the vote there against Biden in 2020. - The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter moved Pennsylvania's Senate race to "lean Democrat" this month, citing widespread GOP concerns with Dr. Mehmet Oz's campaign.
🔮 What's next: Biden will be back in Pennsylvania on Thursday, when he'll deliver a prime-time speech on "the continued battle for the Soul of the Nation," outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. - Then Biden will be in Pittsburgh on Labor Day.
Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. 🗳️ Dems warm to Biden again | | President Biden at a DNC rally in Rockville, Md., last week. Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters As President Biden's political fortunes improve, some swing-state Democrats are acting more comfortable about appearing with the president, Axios' Josh Kraushaar reports. - Why it matters: For most of the summer, the president was persona non grata for nearly any Democrat running in a tough race this November. But that's beginning to change.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro and Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) will appear at Biden's event today in Wilkes-Barre. - Ohio Senate nominee Tim Ryan, who's kept his distance, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" that he'll be with Biden Friday at the groundbreaking for a new Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility.
👀 What we're watching: Pennsylvania's Democratic Senate nominee, John Fetterman, says he won't attend today's Biden event because he has a previously planned fundraiser in Pittsburgh. - Fetterman's campaign told Axios he does plan on being at a Labor Day parade with Biden on Monday.
🧮 By the numbers: A new Gallup poll shows Biden's job approval jumping to 44% — up from 38% last month — with support among independents surging nine points (to 40%). Those aren't good numbers, but they're much better than rock-bottom levels earlier this year. Cartwright — who represents Scranton, Biden's birthplace — is one of a few Democrats in a competitive race who's been willing to appear alongside the president. Trump carried Cartwright's district by three percentage points in 2020. - "I've been friends with Joe Biden for 30 years," Cartwright told The Washington Post. "What kind of person distances themselves from their friends just because their friends are a few points down in the polls?"
Share this story. | | | | | | | | 3. 📈 $20/hour = the new $15 |  Data: Indeed. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals More job searchers are looking for work that pays $20 an hour, surpassing searches for $15 an hour, Emily Peck of Axios Markets writes from data released yesterday by job search platform Indeed. - Why it matters: Inflation and a labor shortage pushed up wages faster than anyone could've imagined a decade ago — when Fight for $15, a union-led push to organize fast-food workers, was founded.
Case in point: In California, fast-food workers could start earning as much as $22 an hour, after a bill passed the state Senate and Assembly yesterday over business objections. - The bill is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk, but he hasn't said whether he'll sign it. His administration released an analysis in June opposing it, the L.A. Times reports.
🔮 What's next: "We're trying to encourage the original states and cities that moved to $15 to consider a higher [wage]," Mary Kay Henry, the president of Service Employees International Union, which backs Fight for $15, told Axios earlier this year. | | | | | | | | A message from Wells Fargo | | $50 million invested in 13 Black-owned banks | | |  | | | | Wells Fargo honors its commitment to make meaningful capital investments in Black-owned banks, fulfilling a $50 million pledge to minority depository institutions. Why it's important: This helps traditionally underserved communities gain access to banking services. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. 🧊 "Zombie ice" rising | | A boat maneuvers among icebergs floating in Disko Bay, western Greenland, in June. Photo: Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images Greenland is on course to raise global sea levels by at least 10.6 feet during the next century, even if human-caused warming were to cease immediately, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes from a new study. - The study includes satellite and ground measurements of the ice sheet's retreating snow line over 20 years.
Why it matters: The study is a clear warning to coastal residents that flooding, already worsening, could increase significantly in coming decades, in both frequency and severity. What's happening: One cause, the study says, is "zombie ice" — doomed ice that's attached to thicker areas but is no longer getting replenished by parent glaciers, which are now receiving less snow. - Melt from the doomed ice will raise seas.
Go deeper. | | | | | | | | 5. Cellphone space race |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | Young satellite companies say they're on the precipice of blanketing the planet with cellphone service, Axios' Hope King, Margaret Harding McGill and Miriam Kramer report. - Why it matters: If they succeed, their technology could eliminate dead zones and provide more reliable coverage to millions of people.
Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert last week announced plans to start delivering U.S. service through SpaceX's Starlink by the end of next year. - Only text and certain messaging capabilities will be available in the beginning, with the goal of adding voice and data down the line.
- "We've all read about someone who was hiking, got lost or died of thirst or exposure," Musk said during the announcement event, adding that this service will help in those types of situations.
🧠 How it works: New satellites equipped with larger and more powerful antennas will pick up signals from cellphones directly, rather than relying on cell towers. - The partnership would effectively enable cellphones to do what satellite phones can do, Jon Peha — former FCC chief technologist, now a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon — tells Axios.
Share this story. | | | | | | | | 6. 🎧 "How it Happened" Season 5: Musk vs. Twitter |  | | | Image: Trina Crawn/Axios Design. Photo: Patrick Pleul/Pool via Getty Images | | | | A trailer is out this morning for an Axios podcast series coming in September, "How it Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter." - This collaboration across our newsroom features exclusive reporting on the rise of Elon Musk to become the world's richest man, the parallel rise of Twitter as the global public square — and the collision of these two titans this year.
The documentary series will go inside Elon Musk's world — and inside his companies — to show how he achieved cross-industry dominance. - It goes deep inside Twitter's inner workings, with new reporting on the day President Trump's account was permanently suspended.
The podcast — hosted by Erica Pandey, with Naomi Shavin as senior producer — features reporting from Jonathan Swan, Sara Fischer, Dan Primack, Axios Space author Miriam Kramer and more. | | | | | | | | 7. 🏡 Covering America: Where home prices are soaring |  Data: National Association of Realtors. Chart: Axios Visuals The median price of single-family homes in Northwest Arkansas (including Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers) grew faster year-over-year than any other place in the country, Worth Sparkman of Axios NW Arkansas writes from National Association of Realtors data. - The median price for a house in Northwest Arkansas between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, was $350,000 — 15% lower than the national median price of $413,000.
- The national price was up 14.2% from the same period a year earlier.
😎 Of the top 10 single-family metro areas with the highest home price appreciation, seven are in Florida. - Get Axios Local — with daily newsletters in 24 cities, and 6 more on the way.
| | | | | | | | 8. 🎾 Saluting Serena | | Serena Williams vs. Danka Kovinić of Montenegro last night. Photo: Mike Stobe/Getty Images They came from far and wide for Serena — no last name required, befitting someone as much an icon as superstar athlete — to see her practice and play and, it turned out, win at the U.S. Open last night. - They turned out in record numbers to fill Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, Queens — and shout and applaud and pump their fists right along with her, AP's Howard Fendrich writes.
Serena Williams, who turns 41 next month, is not ready to say goodbye just yet. Nor, clearly, are her fans. And she heard them, loud and clear. - In her first match at what is expected to be the last U.S. Open — and last tournament — of her remarkable career, Williams overcame a shaky start to overpower Danka Kovinić of Montenegro 6-3, 6-3.
- Kovinić is 27 — the same length as Williams' pro career.
At a post-match tribute to Williams, another tennis icon, Billie Jean King, 78, said: "Thank you for your leadership and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion [applause] — especially for women and women of color!" | | | | | | | | A message from Wells Fargo | | A $2 billion inclusive communities and climate bond | | |  | | | | Wells Fargo engaged 24 diverse broker-dealers to issue its second sustainability bond supporting housing affordability, economic opportunity, renewable energy and clean transportation. Why it's important: This promotes the transition to an equitable, low-carbon future. Learn more | | | | 📬 Invite your friends to sign up to get their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. |  | | Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment