Texans Are Voting in Record Numbers. So Who's Voting?

AUSTIN, Texas — More than 8.5 million Texans have already cast a ballot. But the question continues to be – who's the high turnout benefiting?

Derek Ryan is a GOP voter data analyst and has been tracking the numbers. As of Wednesday, his data showed voters who most recently voted in a Republican Primary have about a 350,000 vote advantage over voters who most recently voted in a Democratic Primary.

“Republicans are outnumbering people with previous Democratic primary history. What can we read into that? It’s tough to say,” he said. “I think the interesting thing is that when early voting first started we saw a surge in people with previous Democratic primary history showing up to vote. They were obviously energized. And as we’ve gotten through early voting, the past few weeks, we’ve seen more and more people with Republican primary histories starting to show up.”

Ryan’s data also shows 16 percent of people showing up to vote early have not voted in a previous general election in the last four election cycles.

Read more: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2020/10/30/texans-are-voting-in-record-numbers--so-who-s-voting--

Doctors are Seeing Rise in Insomnia During COVID-19 Pandemic

WORCESTER, Mass. - The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we go about our daily routines, and it turns out it's also affecting our sleep patterns.

Medical Director of the Saint Vincent Hospital Sleep Lab, Dr. Anthony Izzo, says the hospital is seeing an increase in chronic insomnia. He says anxiety around losing a job, getting the virus, and remote learning are a few contributing factors.

The hospital is expanding its Sleep Lab with a new testing technology allowing patients to track their sleep patterns at home and pass the information to doctors who can help evaluate and treat sleep disorders.

Dr. Izzo says there are ways to identify if your insomnia is brought on by the pandemic.

"I think as a nation we all have trouble sleeping, I think we are not great sleepers in the United States and I think there is a lot of different factors that play into it. Certainly, new changes in sleep patterns that have happened since February or March when the pandemic started to roll in and quarantine started to happen," Dr. Izzo said. "Those types of changes that people can link right to the start of the pandemic and quarantine are indicators that this is not just your garden variety insomnia."

Read more: https://spectrumnews1.com/ma/worcester/news/2020/10/29/corona-insmonia-102920

Vermont Gas to Pay for Some F-35 Soundproofing

A sizable donation from a Vermont utility will help soundproof buildings in three Chittenden County cities affected by F-35 jet noise, officials said Thursday.

Vermont Gas Systems will kick in $550,000 for Burlington International Airport’s noise mitigation program in fiscal year 2021. The amount covers the required 10 percent local match for a $4.5 million annual federal grant sought by Burlington, South Burlington and Winooski.

“When it appeared that our general funds … might be on the hook in some way for that half a million dollars or more a year, that was a real obstacle to moving forward with this program,” Mayor Miro Weinberger said at a press conference in Winooski, where he was joined by that city's mayor, Kristine Lott, and South Burlington City Council chair Helen Riehle.

“The hope is that this pilot [program] lays the groundwork for that local match to be the way this works going forward,” Weinberger said.

Read more: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2020/10/29/vermont-gas-to-pay-for-some-f-35-soundproofing

Campaign Countdown: Zuckerman and Scott spar on health care reform

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Health care is on the minds of voters in 2020 and the two candidates running for Vermont governor have very different views on how to best lower costs and improve service.

Over the last two decades, health care spending in Vermont rose by over 160 percent. “If this was easy, it’d already be done," says Governor Phil Scott, R-Vermont

To control inflating costs, Vermont is taking part in the experimental all-payer model that Scott supports. The new model changes how providers are paid and attempts to focus on preventative care to improve health and bring down costs. Instead of charging for individual procedures, hospitals and providers are paid a flat monthly rate. The reform efforts are overseen by OneCare Vermont, a collection of hospitals and doctors called an Accountable Care Organization.

Several years into the state’s contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, reform efforts are showing cost savings for Medicaid patients, but the state still has a long way to go to bring more providers on board. Scott says the model can work, it just needs time. “I think it’s still viable," he said. "We just need more people to participate in it. More of a holistic approach, a prevention approach to health care instead of fee for service.”

Read more: https://www.wcax.com/2020/10/29/campaign-countdown-zuckerman-and-scott-spar-on-health-care-reform/

Militia training site terrifies neighbors in West Pawlet

WEST PAWLET — In the remote hills of southwestern Vermont, a group of locals gathered last week to talk with a reporter about chilling experiences they’ve had with a nearby property owner.

The property owner, Daniel Banyai, and groups of men armed with large guns, have had confrontational exchanges with local residents many times over the past four years.

Sometimes, neighbors say, they have been followed or confronted by the armed men. On weekends, they hear rapid gunshots, and sometimes explosions — part of paramilitary training that takes place at two shooting ranges on the 31-acre property.

Banyai runs Slate Ridge, a center for military-style training and “professional gunfighting,” which operates in a remote pocket of Rutland County. Located near Route 22, on Briar Hill Road, the center is a 50-minute drive from Rutland’s State Police barracks, the closest law enforcement other than the town’s two constables.

Read more: https://vtdigger.org/2020/10/29/militia-training-site-terrifies-neighbors-in-west-pawlet/

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Trump's COVID Denial, Rally Disdain & Meeting with Lil Wayne

In Portsmouth, Pressley pushes get out the vote message

PORTSMOUTH — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts choked up on Thursday as she talked about an immigrant girl in her district who took care of a baby sister while her mother was in the hospital fighting COVID-19.

“For two weeks, that 11-year-old cared for her 9-month-old little sister, scared, hungry, afraid, and alone. She’d run out of food. She’d run out of diapers. Her little sister was in a towel with safety pins,” Pressley said.

A neighbor noticed and was able to connect the girl with the services she needed.

“I wish I could tell you that story, that devastatingly lived experience, that she is an anomaly. But she is not. That is Donald Trump’s America,” Pressley said.

Pressley, a nationally known progressive lawmaker and one of four women in the U.S. House of Representatives known as the “Squad,” was at the house of Tanna Clews for the get-out-the-vote event. The “Squad” is made up of Pressley, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Read more: https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/in-portsmouth-pressley-pushes-get-out-the-vote-message/article_57951b57-9da2-5c47-822f-e949ea810f52.html

Former Belknap County Sheriff's Department chief deputy sues county, former boss

LACONIA – The former second-in-command at the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department has sued the county and his old boss alleging wrongful termination and violations of both the whistleblower-protection act and the public employee freedom-of-expression law.

Filed Tuesday in Belknap County Superior Court by David Perkins, who was chief deputy to Sheriff Michael Moyer until late May, the lawsuit asks the court to schedule a jury trial and to enter judgement against the defendants “in an amount to be proven at trial, plus damage pre-judgment and post-judgment interest as to all claims.

Perkins said he was forced to resign.

Additionally, the lawsuit, which names Moyer as a defendant both individually and in his capacity as sheriff, seeks enhanced compensatory damages and all costs and attorney’s fees.

On Thursday, Moyer who was first elected sheriff in 2016 but is not seeking re-election, said he’d read through some of Perkins’ lawsuit, observing that “It reads like a fiction novel.”

Read more: https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/former-belknap-county-sheriff-s-department-chief-deputy-sues-county-former-boss/article_245ac51a-346d-5df9-8c6f-21b5205158d2.html

Matt Krause: Trump's Anti-Science Ally

Since first elected to the Texas House of Representatives, District 93 Republican Matt Krause has made it clear – anti-vaxxers have his ear and his support. Scientists and doctors? Not so much.

Matt Krause is recognized as one of the most ideologically extreme State House members and even serves as a leader within the Tea Party-based Freedom Caucus. Krause’s dangerous anti-science views on vaccinations, however, set him apart from other off-the-edgers in the House. Krause moves in lock-step with anti-vaxxers, taking their money, their endorsements, and pushing their legislation.

Champion for Anti-Vaxxers

Matt Krause has given fringe, anti-vaxxer groups such as Texans for Vaccine Choice (TFVC) a home in the Texas Legislature. TFVC consistently opposes reporting requirements for vaccine use in areas such as schools and public health. Krause was the lead author for several of their pet legislative initiatives including HB 1124 in 2017 and HB 1490 in 2019.

The group has called Krause its “Champion Legislator.” When responsible Texans cited doctors and voiced their concerns over one of his bills that would block tracking vaccine usage, Matt Krause said he would be willing to scrap that language only if he got permission from Texans for Vaccine Choice.

Read more: https://lonestarproject.net/2020/10/28/matt-krause-trumps-anti-science-ally/

Carrie Isaac Uses Trump-style Scam to Swindle Veterans

Hays and Blanco County voters don’t have to look to Washington and Donald Trump to find a politician who scams charities to enrich themselves. They’ve got House District 45 Republican Carrie Isaac right in their own backyard.

The Austin American-Statesman exposed the scandal earlier this year when it detailed that of the $250,000 Isaac’s nonprofit brought in during 2018, less than 1% of its expenditures went to the nonprofit’s reported purpose – to connect disabled veterans with employment. The only other expense the group made was to pay Isaac’s salary as its Executive Director.

Why wasn’t there oversight and some assurance that the money would not all be skimmed into Isaac’s pocket? Isaac campaign donors even sat on the board of the nonprofit.

When called out for her actions, Isaac lashed out in typical Trump-fashion, fabricating claims that the media and Democrats were out to get her and Donald Trump.

Read more: https://lonestarproject.net/2020/10/26/carrie-isaac-trump-style-scam-swindle-veterans/

Austin American-Statesman article: https://www.statesman.com/news/20200220/is-gop-candidatersquos-nonprofit-helping-veterans