| | | | | | | Presented By BlackRock | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Sep 17, 2022 | | 📜 Happy Saturday. It's Constitution Day — the day the Constitution was signed in 1787, 235 years ago. - Smart Brevity™ count: 1,193 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by Donica Phifer and TuAnh Dam.
| | | | | | 1 big thing: War for your teeth |  | | | Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios | | | | Oral health companies, orthodontists, dentists and regulators are engaged in a high-stakes war over how to best straighten your teeth. - Invisalign and SmileDirectClub — as well as a slew of smaller companies — are sidelining orthodontists and taking market share from wire-and-bracket braces, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes.
These companies sell clear-plastic aligners, which can progressively straighten your teeth. Unlike braces, they can be removed for eating, drinking, photo-taking and ... well, romantic encounters. - The orthodontics lobby — led by the American Association of Orthodontists — has engaged in a long-running fight with SmileDirectClub over its direct-to-consumer strategy.
- That strategy allows users to straighten their teeth without visiting a medical professional's office.
🖼️ The big picture: The pandemic triggered a boom in sales of teeth aligners. - "You're sitting at home, you're on Zoom all day, you have some extra coin in your pocket — and a lot of people decided to do that," Jefferies analyst Brandon Couillard, who tracks the teeth alignment industry, tells Axios.
But sales trailed off over the past year, bruising manufacturers' stock prices. - Story continues in next item.
|     | | | | | | 2. 🦷 How it works | | Invisalign involves in-person oversight from a dentist or orthodontist, Axios' Nathan Bomey reports. - They get a cut of the revenue in exchange for selling and performing the service, which can take anywhere from several months to more than a year for full results.
SmileDirectClub largely skips office visits by signing up patients directly. - Customers receive an oral impression kit by mail. They ship it back to the company, which employs dentists to design teeth-straightening plans and oversee cases remotely.
Invisalign costs about $5,000 to $6,000 per case. - SmileDirectClub typically costs a few thousand less.
The other side: The American Association of Orthodontics argues that an orthodontist should oversee teeth straightening since 0rthodontic treatment "involves the movement of biological material." 👀 What we're watching: SmileDirectClub is developing an app-based 3D mouth-scanning system that could make the process more enticing. | | | | | | | | 3. 🌴 DeSantis will keep relocating migrants | | At the Steamship Authority's Woods Hole terminal yesterday, Massachusetts state police lead a bus carrying Venezuelan migrants from Martha's Vineyard to Joint Base Cape Cod. Photo: Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times via Reuters Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defended flying migrant families to Martha's Vineyard this week, and said he plans to spend millions that Florida has budgeted to continue the controversial practice. - "These are just the beginning efforts," DeSantis said yesterday at a news conference in Daytona Beach, per CNN.
"We've got an infrastructure in place now. There's going to be a lot more that's happening." | | | | | | | | A message from BlackRock | | Invested in the future of education | | |  | | | | Americans everywhere are working hard to build a better future. So at BlackRock, we're hard at work to help them achieve financial freedom. We're proud to help families invest to save for education by managing their 529 College Savings Plans. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. 📷 1,000 words | | Photo: Martin Meissner/AP In Axios PM, we showed you the 5-mile line to pay respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, lying in state on the catafalque in Westminster Hall, Westminster Palace, London. - Well, it went all night — and the wait to see the Queen on Friday swelled to 24 hours. Above, you see the queue in front of Tower Bridge early today.
Photo: Yui Mok/WPA Pool via Getty Images Vigil of the princes: King Charles III (center) and his three siblings stood vigil around the flag-draped coffin for 15 minutes last evening. A baby's cry was the only sound. - At left is Princess Anne, obscured between the candles. Prince Andrew is "Rear unseen," as the British caption puts it. The youngest — Prince Edward — is at right, between the candles.
| | | | | | | | 5. 🗳️ GOP's non-MAGA inroads | | Oregon Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan in July. Photo: Jaime Valdez/Pamplin Media Group via AP Republicans are competitive in several governors' races in blue states, even as they struggle in the classic battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania, Axios' Josh Kraushaar writes. - Why it matters: If Republicans make inroads on Biden-friendly turf in November, it would be a sign that moderation still sells.
What's happening: Republicans have put the gubernatorial races in Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico in play. - The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter moved the Oregon governor's race into toss-up territory, reflecting the strength of Republican Christine Drazan's candidacy.
- Oregon Democrats are divided between progressive Democratic nominee Tina Kotek and Betsy Johnson, a more moderate candidate running as an independent.
- Oregon hasn't elected a Republican governor since 1982.
An Emerson College poll of the Nevada governor's race shows Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) tied with his Republican opponent, Joe Lombardo. - 👂 What we're hearing: Some Republican officials now view Nevada as their best opportunity to flip a Democratic-held statehouse.
In New Mexico, an Emerson-KRQE poll finds Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham only holding a five-point lead over Republican Mark Ronchetti in a Democratic-friendly state. - Lujan Grisham has been beset with low approval ratings, staff upheaval and charges of hypocrisy.
🔮 What's next: Blue-state victories for moderate Rs could help boost the national prospects of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. - He is spending lots of political capital for these blue-state Republicans.
- By contrast, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Trump are boosting MAGA Republicans.
The bottom line: Candidate quality matters. - Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidates are losing badly in Pennsylvania and Michigan — states that are much more GOP-friendly than Oregon, Nevada or New Mexico.
Get Josh Kraushaar's Sunday look ahead at forces shaping American politics ... Sign up here for Axios Sneak Peek ... Share this story. | | | | | | | | 6. 📊 Charted: Biden recovery |  Data: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Chart: Nicki Camberg/Axios President Biden's popularity has risen substantially from his low point this summer. But concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a poll by AP and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. - Support for Biden recovered to 45%, from a low of 36% in July, after a string of legislative successes.
- Among Ds, it was 78%. Among Rs, it was 10%.
Between the lines: Just 38% of American adults approved of his economic leadership. - Biden's high-water mark was 63%, three months into the job.
| | | | | | | | 7. ⚖️ Trump lawyers at war | | Photo: Jon Elswick/AP To the extent anyone quarterbacks former President Trump's legal team, "it is Boris Epshteyn, a former campaign adviser and a graduate of the Georgetown University law school," the N.Y. Times' Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush report (subscription). - Why it matters: Current and former Trump allies are "worried about a turnstile roster of lawyers representing a client who often defies advice and inserts political rants into legal filings."
🥊 Eric Herschmann, a former Trump White House lawyer who has been summoned to testify for a federal grand jury, wrote in an email obtained by The Times: "I certainly am not relying on any legal analysis from ... Boris who — to be clear — I think is an idiot." | | | | | | | | 8. 1 fun thing: Stamping out a rumor |  | | | Photo: Treasury Department | | | | Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen isn't a stamp collector. - But there's a myth that she is. And at least six foreign leaders have given her stamps during diplomatic meetings, The Wall Street Journal's Andrew Duehren reports in a classic A-hed (subscription).
"The perception stuck after she listed her mother's stamp collection, worth between $15,001 and $50,000, in financial disclosure forms required for various government roles over the years," Duehren reports. - In declining membership in an elite stamp club in 2017, when she was Fed chair, Yellen wrote: "I've not had the time for many, many years to develop the collection or to be actively involved in philately" — the fancy name for collecting stamps.
Word didn't get around. At the G20 in Indonesia this summer, Yellen received a block of stamps (photo above) bearing her portrait. | | | | | | | | A message from BlackRock | | Invested in the future of first responders | | |  | | | | We're proud to manage the pensions of those who serve others. All across the country, we're helping Americans invest for their future. Meet Joshua, one of the hundreds of thousands of first responders whose retirement plan assets are managed by BlackRock. 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. | | | |
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