--:-- Will Jarvis: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis, in for Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, November 11th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- [Sound of papers shuffling]
--:-- Will Jarvis: On this vote, the ayes are 60, the nays are 40. The bill, as amended, is passed. On Capitol Hill yesterday, lawmakers took another crucial step towards ending the ongoing shutdown as the Senate gave its final approval for a spending package to reopen the government.
--:-- Will Jarvis: And with that, after six excruciating weeks, I will stop talking and let all of you get some rest. As president, I yield the floor. Next, the measure will go to the House, where members have been on a nearly two-month recess. Speaker Mike Johnson has told them to return to Washington immediately. A vote there could happen tomorrow at the earliest. Then the bill would head to President Trump, who said he's willing to sign it and end the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Meanwhile, they're looting the health care for middle class families, poor families, in order to pay for tax breaks for people who already have too much. The compromise that broke the logjam, where a handful of senators in the Democratic caucus voted with Republicans, has set off intense backlash. The American people want us to stop this health care heist. They don't want Democrats to be driving the getaway car.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Many Democrats are furious about the fact that eight senators broke ranks and dropped what had been the party's central demand, an extension of health care subsidies for over 20 million Americans. Some accused them of enabling Trump's agenda and betraying their constituents. Notably, all eight of those senators could afford to take a political hit. Two are retiring, and the others are not up for re-election next year.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Today on The Daily, Times political correspondent Shane Goldmacher talks with Michael Barbaro about the politics of the shutdown and the trade-offs that Democrats have made.
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--:-- Shane Goldmacher: The Democratic Party has clearly elevated two issues that it feels are the winning issues for the party. The first is health care, and the second is affordability told through health care. Those have been the dominant topic of conversation for weeks, which is pretty hard to pull off when you're the minority party with no power in Washington. And it took a shutdown for them to do that and for them to elevate those issues in hopes that long past the shutdown, voters will think, oh, that's the party that's actually fighting for me on those issues.
--:-- Shane Goldmacher: Right. So that's one side of the ledger, the good side. That's the good side. But the risk of that fight was inflating people's expectations that they were actually going to win something. And they didn't get those outcomes.
--:-- Shane Goldmacher: Beyond moving towards ending the shutdown, the spending bill passed by the Senate also includes another provision that could let some lawmakers personally collect up to half a million dollars from the government. The measure creates a new legal pathway for senators to sue if federal investigators search their phone records without notifying them.
--:-- Shane Goldmacher: It's not clear who added the language to the bill, but the provision is retroactive to 2022. That means that a handful of sitting Republicans could potentially sue and get the payout. Their phone records, things like what numbers were called and how long calls lasted, were subpoenaed as part of the investigation into the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
--:-- Shane Goldmacher: Lawmakers were not formally notified about the subpoenas until two years later. Republican lawmakers said that accessing those records was inappropriate spying.
--:-- Shane Goldmacher: One Democratic senator, meanwhile, said the new provision, quote, takes a reasonable protection against government surveillance and wraps it in an unacceptable giveaway of your tax dollars to Republican senators.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: At the White House, President Trump has been issuing a flurry of pardons, granting clemency to political allies and longtime supporters. In recent days, he quietly issued a pardon for the husband of a Republican congresswoman who pleaded guilty to health care fraud, and two prominent Republicans in Tennessee politics who were found guilty of public corruption.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: Trump has also deployed his pardon power to help several key figures accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election. That includes Rudy Giuliani, his former lawyer, Sidney Powell, who pushed baseless conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, and a number of lower officials who tried to change election results.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: Many of the people Trump pardoned still face prosecutions at the state level, so Trump's federal pardons are largely seen as symbolic. But they underscore just how far the president is willing to go to sustain the lie that the 2020 election was rigged.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: Since he first took office in 2017, Trump has sidestepped a long-standing process where clemency applications are formally reviewed, instead handing out pardons and commutations in a freewheeling manner. And at least eight convicts Trump granted clemency to in his first term have been charged with crimes again.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: One man who was jailed for drug trafficking and money laundering had his sentence commuted in 2021 thanks to connections to Trump's son-in-law. He was back in court on Monday accused of sexual and physical assault and sentenced to more than two years in prison.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: On Monday, public health officials announced that Canada has officially lost its status as having eliminated measles amid a downturn in vaccination rates and a surge in the disease.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: According to the World Health Organization, a country loses elimination status if a disease spreads unchecked for more than a year. We're going to start with measles because cases are on the rise right across the country. More warnings from the provinces as the number of cases of measles continues to grow.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: More than two dozen new measles infections were reported, and health officials believe there are likely going to be more undetected. In the past 12 months in Canada, there have been more than 5,000 cases of measles, an outbreak caused by the collision of politics and public health, as pushback against vaccines has grown in the post-pandemic era.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: The most recent data show that less than 80% of Canadian 7-year-olds are fully vaccinated against measles, far below the 95% threshold that experts say is needed to stop the virus from spreading.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: The highest concentration of cases in Canada has been in the western province of Alberta, where politicians have emphasized personal freedoms to reject vaccination, and the conservative premier has called unvaccinated people the region's quote, most discriminated against group.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: A recent Times investigation found that as the outbreak spread, health officials in Alberta were stymied from ramping up warnings about measles, which can cause severe health issues especially for young kids.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: Experts say that beyond the dangers of the disease itself, the resurgence of measles in Canada and across North America is especially concerning because it could be a kind of canary in a coal mine, suggesting that other once-eliminated diseases, like polio, could also reappear as vaccination rates slip.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: And finally, so let's see if he can be efficient. Throw it over the plate and the first one bounces in the grass. The world of pro sports is grappling with yet another gambling scandal this week, after two MLB pitchers were charged with sharing inside information with bettors, who then made hundreds of thousands of dollars.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: The alleged scheme centered on what are known as micro bets, wagers that happen in the moment, like will the next batter get a hit or will the next pitch be a strike.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: Prosecutors say that two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians were coordinating with bettors to tell them what to bet on next. They said one of the players was even doing it in the middle of games using his phone.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: In recent years, as betting companies have expanded the number and types of events that can be gambled on, the explosion of small side bets has transformed pro sports, driving fan engagement, boosting profits, and potentially opening the door to more illegal collusion.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: Just last month, federal prosecutors charged several current and former NBA players over a similar kind of scheme, where they were also allegedly coordinating with gamblers.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: And yesterday, the MLB announced that it's setting a $200 limit on bets on individual pitches, which it says are particularly vulnerable to manipulation.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: But at the end of the day, it is sports, and there are variables that no one, not even someone trying to rig things, can control.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: During a Guardians game back in May, bettors allegedly had four grand riding on a single pitch, betting that it would be a ball. The pitcher wound up, released, and oops, swing and a miss for a strike.
--:-- Michael Barbaro: Prosecutors say the pitcher later sent one of the bettors a message with a gif of a sad puppy dog face.
--:-- Will Jarvis: Those are the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis. We'll be back tomorrow.
