Pennsylvania's Senate race is the most expensive in the country — and it's not even close
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania's crucial U.S. Senate race has been the most expensive in the country this year — and it's not even close.
Democrat John Fetterman, Republican Mehmet Oz and their political allies have spent a combined $312 million on a race that could determine control of the Senate, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.
And that's not counting Pennsylvania's costly Senate primary. Add the receipts from May and the tab rises to close to $374 million.
The eye-popping cost reflects both the high stakes of Pennsylvania's race, and the cost of advertising in a big state with six media markets, including expensive Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Elon Musk mulls paywall for all of Twitter, according to report
Elon Musk is mulling whether to place all Twitter content behind a paywall, according to a new report.
While any such change does not appear to be imminent, Musk has recently been turning over the idea of a site subscription fee with one of his advisers, venture capitalist David Sacks, according to a report from tech newsletter Platformer. Lots of questions remain around the potential paywall for the platform, the biggest among them being who will be charged and just how much.
A source familiar with the discussion told Platformer one option includes keeping Twitter free for a certain amount of time each month before charging users a certain amount of money to continue browsing.
A site-wide paywall is only the latest idea Musk is exploring in a bid to generate revenue for the micro-blogging platform, which he formally acquired last month for $44 billion.
—New York Daily News
Alcohol deaths ‘exploded’ during pandemic, according to new data
Deaths caused by alcohol use have been climbing in the United States for nearly 20 years, but rose dramatically at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to data released Friday by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol-related deaths increased by 26% from 2019 to 2020, rising from 10.4 deaths for 100,000 people in 2019 to 13 for every 100,000 people in 2020.
“What’s a word bigger than crisis? What was already a crisis, has exploded,” Marvin Ventrell, chief executive officer of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, said to CNN. Although death rates overall were higher among men than women — in 2020, there were 19.2 deaths per 100,000 men, compared with 7.5 per 100,000 women — women saw the largest one-year increase at 27%.
Among women, the greatest increase was 42% for those ages 35-44, rising from 7.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2019 to 10.2 per 100,000 in 2020, NBC News reported. The second largest, NBC News said, was a 34% rise among women 25-34.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Russia and US to resume nuclear talks as Ukraine war rages on
WASHINGTON — Russia and the U.S. expect to meet in the coming weeks to talk about resuming inspections of atomic weapons sites under the New START treaty, a small step toward reviving arms-control talks suspended since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the Bilateral Consultative Commission will meet in the “near future” but declined to offer details. He sought to play down expectations of a breakthrough but said it was important to make sure the two countries’ ability to engage in dialogue “does not atrophy.”
“When it comes to Russia, of course we are clear-eyed,” Price told a briefing. “We’re realistic about what dialogue between the United States and Russia, both what it can entail and what it can accomplish.”
Two people in Moscow familiar with discussions around the talks said Cairo is the likely venue since Switzerland has joined sanctions against Russia over its invasion. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov declined to comment.
—Bloomberg News
