| | | | | | | Presented By Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Aug 04, 2022 | | Happy Thursday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,486 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. 🏠 At 12:30 p.m. today, please join Axios for a Hard Truths virtual event on the racial homeownership gap. Guests include HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. Register here. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Abortion on the ballot |  Data: Ballotpedia. (In "pending" states, the ballot measure awaits certification or legislative action.) Map: Simran Parwani/Axios Tuesday's victory for abortion rights in Kansas is bolstering Democrats' confidence that the issue will help them win close midterm races in battlegrounds, Axios' Josh Kraushaar writes. - Why it matters: The 18-point loss in a big turnout — for a proposal to strip abortion rights from the state constitution — suggests abortion can push swing voters to Democrats, and mobilize the liberal base.
What's happening: Abortion now often ranks as the second most important issue in national polls, after economic concerns. - Democrats are confident that Republicans who take the most hardline positions on abortion — banning the procedure even in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger — will face a political backlash.
In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, used the Kansas vote as a new avenue to attack Dr. Mehmet Oz, who opposes abortion rights. - Other states where abortion is a major issue in statewide races include Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona.
Zoom in: The Kansas referendum proved to be a huge motivator for the state's Democratic voters, who turned out at high levels and stood in lines for an otherwise sleepy August primary. - In Johnson County — suburban Kansas City — more than 242,000 votes were cast Tuesday. That's close to the historically high voter turnout in the 2018 midterms. If that were replicated in other suburbs around the U.S., it could make a difference in crucial contests up and down the ballot.
Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. ⚖️ Most pro-business Supreme Court ever |  Data: Supreme Court Database via Epstein and Gulati. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals This Supreme Court is the most pro-business of all time, Axios' Felix Salmon writes from an important new paper looking at decisions between 1921 and 2020. - Why it matters: The study shows a degree of pro-business sentiment today that far exceeds even pre-Depression highs.
When the court heard a case featuring a business on one side and a non-business on the other, it found in favor of the business 83% of the time in 2020, and 63% of the time that John Roberts has been chief justice. - Historically speaking, the Supreme Court has found in favor of businesses 41% of the time.
- The paper's authors — Lee Epstein of Washington University in St. Louis, and Mitu Gulati of U.Va. — collated their findings from the Washington University Supreme Court Database.
The six justices with the most pro-business voting records of all time are all on the court right now. Each (Justices Amy Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas) was nominated by a Republican president. - Justices nominated by Democrats can also be business-friendly. Elena Kagan is pro-business 56% of the time, placing her higher on the list than Antonin Scalia.
- The least business-friendly current justice, Sonia Sotomayor, still ranks 17th out of 57 justices in the study. She finds in favor of business 48% of the time. That number for Earl Warren, who was chief justice during the more worker-friendly era of 1953 to 1969, was 25%.
How it works: To some extent, the justices can be seen to be following the lead of the government. When the government takes sides in these cases, it usually takes the business's side. | | | | | | | | 3. 🎸 Climate-shaming celebrities |  | | | Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images | | | | Celebrities would be doing Earth a favor if they cut back on private jets. But combating global warming will require bigger systemic changes, not just better personal behavior, Ben Geman writes in Axios Generate. - A report from Yard, a U.K. marketing firm, put Taylor Swift's plane atop a list of celebrity emissions "offenders." Swift's camp says the study captured flights from people who borrowed the jet.
How it works: Yes, private planes spew a lot of CO2. But slashing emissions enough to meet global goals would require tougher regulations on polluting industries, putting a price on carbon emissions, more government financing for clean tech, and more. - NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel told us: "[W]hile I would prefer Taylor Swift make more responsible transportation decisions, shouting at celebrities on the internet is not in my personal top 10 list of policy levers."
Share this story. | | | | | | | | A message from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids | | FDA delays. Flavored e-cigs hook more kids | | |  | | | | The FDA missed multiple deadlines to take flavored e-cigarettes off the market. It's good news for Big Tobacco — which uses kid-friendly flavors to hook kids with massive doses of nicotine. To protect our kids, the FDA must end the delays and eliminate all flavored e-cigs. Read more. | | | | | | 4. Boomtown math |  Data: Redfin analysis of HMDA data. (Home price change is from Dec. 2019 to Dec. 2021.) Chart: Skye Witley/Axios Incomes soared in "pandemic boomtowns," with all their fancy newcomers. But home prices rose even faster, according to a Redfin analysis of federal mortgage lending data, shared exclusively with Emily Peck of Axios Markets. | | | | | | | | 5. 🇨🇳 China drills encircle Taiwan | | Photo: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images Above: Tourists watch today as a Chinese military helicopter flies past Pingtan island, one of mainland China's closest points to Taiwan. Beijing's military launched multiple ballistic missiles into Taipei's northeast and southwest waters. | | | | | | | | 6. 🔮 Hands-free driving gets big upgrade |  | | | Super Cruise enabled roads before/after expansion. Photos: GM | | | | GM's hands-free driving tech will soon work on many more North American roadways, Joann Muller writes for Axios What's Next. - Why it matters: No one can buy a truly self-driving car yet. But as cars come equipped with ever more capable assisted-driving systems, consumers may grow to trust vehicle automation.
GM's hands-free system, Super Cruise, will be available beginning later this year on 400,000 miles of roads in the U.S. and Canada — double the current area. - Currently limited to 200,000 miles of interstates and divided highways, Super Cruise will expand to iconic U.S. Route 66 (get your kicks), Pacific Coast Highway and U.S. 1.
🔧 How it works: Super Cruise lets you keep your hands in your lap and your feet off the pedals. An infrared camera on the steering column makes sure you're paying attention. | | | | | | | | 7. 🇺🇸 Remembering Rep. Jackie Walorski | | Rep. Jackie Walorski during a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing in 2019. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP Longtime Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) and two young aides were killed in a head-on crash while visiting constituents in her district. She was 58. - The congresswoman, a South Bend native, spent four years as a missionary in Romania, and had been a state legislator.
- Walorski and the staffers — communications director Emma Thomson, 28, and district director Zachery Potts, 27 — died when a car driving the opposite direction veered into oncoming traffic, the Elkhart County Sheriff's office said. The other driver also died.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose hometown of South Bend is in Walorski's district, tweeted: "Though we came from very different places politically, she was always prepared to work together." - Speaker Pelosi ordered Capitol flags flown at half-staff.
🖼️ The big picture: Walorski's death is another huge loss for the Hill community, which has dealt with the deaths of two other House members this year, Axios' Andrew Solender notes. - Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.) passed away from cancer in February.
- Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the House's longest-serving member, died a month later after losing consciousness on a flight to his district.
Share this story ... Biden statement. | | | | | | | | 8. 🎙️ Vin Scully's top calls | | Fans gather outside Dodger Stadium yesterday to visit a growing shrine to announcer Vin Scully, who died Tuesday at age 94. Photo: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Vin Scully — the soundtrack of summer for Dodgers fans in Brooklyn and L.A. for 67 years — died at 94 at his home in the Hidden Hills neighborhood of L.A. Why he mattered: As the longest-tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history, Scully saw it all and called it all. The Dodgers changed players, managers, owners — even coasts. But Scully and his soothing style remained a constant, AP's Beth Harris writes. - He began in the 1950s era of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson ... on to the 1960s with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax ... into the 1970s with Steve Garvey and Don Sutton ... and through the 1980s with Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela.
- In the 1990s, it was Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo ... followed by Kershaw, Manny Ramirez and Yasiel Puig in the 21st century.
Kendall Baker, author of Axios Sports, has this lineup of historic Vin Scully calls: - 1956: Don Larsen's perfect game ... "Got him! The greatest game ever pitched in baseball history by Don Larsen — a no-hitter, a perfect game in a World Series."
- 1965: Sandy Koufax's perfect game ... "You can almost taste the pressure now. There are 29,000 people in the ballpark — and a million butterflies."
- 1974: Hank Aaron's 715th home run ... "What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol."
- 1986: Bill Buckner's error ... "Little roller up along first ... Behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!"
- 1988: Kirk Gibson's walk-off ... "High fly ball into right field! She is GONE!!! ... In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened."
 Vin Scully in his Dodger Stadium announcing booth before a Dodgers-Reds game in 2019. Photo: Gary Friedman/L.A. Times via Getty Images Share the calls. | | | | | | | | A message from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids | | FDA misses deadlines as flavored e-cigs hook more kids | | |  | | | | The FDA's delays are good news for Big Tobacco — which uses kid-friendly flavors to hook kids with massive doses of nicotine. The FDA has missed multiple deadlines to take these dangerous products off the market. Here's how the FDA can protect our kids from flavored e-cigarettes. | | | | 📬 Invite your friends to sign up here for 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. | | | |
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