Missouri

All but one county in Missouri favored Roy Blunt over Carnahan. Jackson county was the only county in the state to support Robin Carnahan over Blunt.

Just about 100% of the election votes have now been reported, and Blunt has defeated Carnahan with 54% of the votes to Carnahan’s 41%. Leading up to the 2010 election, Carnahan was trailing Blunt in all of the major polls since the primaries ended. Most people expected the Republican to win the seat, and he did.

Blunt will succeed Republican Kit Bond and take office on January 3, 2011.

Amendment 4

Basically, the amendment wanted to make it so that a special ballot would have to be set up for the public to vote on changes made to land-use plans. The Amendment would have given Florida voters the right to make more decisions when it came to city and county comprehensive land-use plans in the state. However it would have also cost taxpayers more money in order to have these special ballots set up, as well as up to 200,000+ jobs.

Amendment 4 needed 60% of voters to vote “Yes”. The results have now come in and 67% of voters voted “No” on the Amendment, thus nothing will change when it comes to comprehensive land use plans.

Oregon Election

For the Oregon Senate Race, Democrat Ron Wyden looks to have defeated Republican Jim Huffman. With 95% of the election votes reported, Wyden leads Huffman with 56% of the vote to Huffman’s 40%. Ron Wyden will hold onto his current senate seat for another term.

In the Oregon Governor Race, things are a lot closer. CNN is reporting that Republican Chris Dudley is leading Democrat John Kitzhaber with 637,508 votes to Kitzhaber’s 622,952. These results are based on only 89% of the votes that have been reported. However Google is now reporting that 96% of the votes are in and Dudley leads Kitzhaber with 49% of the votes to Kitzhaber’s 48%. It still isn’t official, but it appears as though the Republican, Dudley will become the next Governor of Oregon.

Stay tuned to Thenewsoftoday for the latest 2010 Election Results as they come in.

Prop 19 California

As it stands now, here are the California Proposition 19 Voting Results:

- 46.2% of voters or 3,332,622 total votes supported Prop 19 and the legalization of marijuana in last night’s election.

- 53.8% of voters or 3,871,243 total votes were against Prop 19 and the legalization of marijuana in last night’s election.

As of now, it is not official, but looking at these numbers it would appear as though there is virtually no chance for Prop 19 to be approved this year. However, the vote was close, and this is major progress for those who wish to legalize, regulate and tax the drug. Perhaps in future California elections there will be an opportunity to legalize it again.

Buzz Class Action

According to the terms of the settlement, Google will create a fund worth $8.5 million that will go to non-profit organizations that help protect internet privacy.

Google has released a statement saying “We are satisfied with the agreement and are glad to move forward.”

Since the lawsuit was filed in February of 2010, Google has made plenty of changes to better suit internet privacy advocates. People were originally upset over the way Google Buzz almost forced people to be followed and to follow others on Google Buzz through Gmail. A lot of people were furious over the way Gmail and Buzz interacted with each other when they first were implemented together.

The Plaintiff Lawyer had this to say:
“We feel this settlement has many benefits to class members, including providing a significant amount of money to non-profit groups committed to educating users about Internet privacy and ensuring that Buzz users can join this on-line community without compromising their privacy.”

The following dates have been set in the Google Buzz Class Action Settlement:
- December 6, 2010 – Exclusion Deadline (received)
- January 10, 2011 – Objection Deadline (received)
- January 31, 2011 at 9:00 A.M. – Fairness Hearing.

It doesn’t appear as though a settlement of $8.5 million will greatly effect Google’s stock price. It was up today in trading, and isn’t expected to take a hit over a mere $8.5 million settlement.

More information can be found at http://buzzclassaction.com

Massachusetts

1. Do you approve of a law summarized below, on which no vote was taken by the Senate or the House of Representatives before May 4, 2010?
“This proposed law would remove the Massachusetts sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol, where the sale of such beverages and alcohol or their importation into the state is already subject to a separate excise tax under state law. The proposed law would take effect on January 1, 2011.”

- A “yes” vote to this question would mean you support removing the additional sales tax that has been implemented on alcohol, while a “no” vote would make no changes.

2. Do you approve of a law summarized below, on which no vote was taken by the Senate or the House of Representatives before May 4, 2010?

“This proposed law would repeal an existing state law that allows a qualified organization wishing to build government-subsidized housing that includes low- or moderate-income units to apply for a single comprehensive permit from a city or town’s zoning board of appeals (ZBA), instead of separate permits from each local agency or official having jurisdiction over any aspect of the proposed housing. The repeal would take effect on January 1, 2011, but would not stop or otherwise affect any proposed housing that had already received both a comprehensive permit and a building permit for at least one unit.

Under the existing law, the ZBA holds a public hearing on the application and considers the recommendations of local agencies and officials. The ZBA may grant a comprehensive permit that may include conditions or requirements concerning the height, site plan, size, shape, or building materials of the housing. Persons aggrieved by the ZBA’s decision to grant a permit may appeal it to a court. If the ZBA denies the permit or grants it with conditions or requirements that make the housing uneconomic to build or to operate, the applicant may appeal to the state Housing Appeals Committee (HAC).

After a hearing, if the HAC rules that the ZBA’s denial of a comprehensive permit was unreasonable and not consistent with local needs, the HAC orders the ZBA to issue the permit. If the HAC rules that the ZBA’s decision issuing a comprehensive permit with conditions or requirements made the housing uneconomic to build or operate and was not consistent with local needs, the HAC orders the ZBA to modify or remove any such condition or requirement so as to make the proposal no longer uneconomic. The HAC cannot order the ZBA to issue any permit that would allow the housing to fall below minimum safety standards or site plan requirements. If the HAC rules that the ZBA’s action was consistent with local needs, the HAC must uphold it even if it made the housing uneconomic. The HAC’s decision is subject to review in the courts.

A condition or requirement makes housing “uneconomic” if it would prevent a public agency or non-profit organization from building or operating the housing except at a financial loss, or it would prevent a limited dividend organization from building or operating the housing without a reasonable return on its investment.

A ZBA’s decision is “consistent with local needs” if it applies requirements that are reasonable in view of the regional need for low- and moderate-income housing and the number of low-income persons in the city or town, as well as the need to protect health and safety, promote better site and building design, and preserve open space, if those requirements are applied as equally as possible to both subsidized and unsubsidized housing. Requirements are considered “consistent with local needs” if more than 10% of the city or town’s housing units are low- or moderate-income units or if such units are on sites making up at least 1.5% of the total private land zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use in the city or town. Requirements are also considered “consistent with local needs” if the application would result, in any one calendar year, in beginning construction of low- or moderate-income housing on sites making up more than 0.3% of the total private land zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use in the city or town, or on ten acres, whichever is larger.”

- A “yes” vote would mean you support repealing the law in the state of Massachusetts that allows the issuance of a comprehensive permit to develop housing that includes some low or moderate income units. A “no” vote would mean you don’t want to repeal this law.

3. Do you approve of a law summarized below, on which no vote was taken by the Senate or the House of Representatives before May 4, 2010?

“This proposed law would reduce the state sales and use tax rates (which were 6.25% as of September 2009) to 3% as of January 1, 2011. It would make the same reduction in the rate used to determine the amount to be deposited with the state Commissioner of Revenue by non-resident building contractors as security for the payment of sales and use tax on tangible personal property used in carrying out their contracts.

The proposed law provides that if the 3% rates would not produce enough revenues to satisfy any lawful pledge of sales and use tax revenues in connection with any bond, note, or other contractual obligation, then the rates would instead be reduced to the lowest level allowed by law.

The proposed law would not affect the collection of moneys due the Commonwealth for sales, storage, use or other consumption of tangible personal property or services occurring before January 1, 2011.

The proposed law states that if any of its parts were declared invalid, the other parts would stay in effect.”

- If you vote “yes” to this question, you would like the state sales & use tax to be reduced to only 3%. If you vote “no” the sales and use taxes will remain the same at 6.25%.

These are important questions, so take your time and think hard about how you truly feel on these issues.

Comic-Con

WE’RE SORRY ABOUT REGISTRATION
We are really sorry for the problems with registration today. We do not know what the technical issues are, so we have temporarily closed registration.

We will announce on Monday November 8th the new date and time that registration will reopen. This down time will allow us to determine and address the issues.

Only a handful of badges were actually sold today.

Thank you for your patience, and again, we all are truly sorry for this inconvenience.

The tickets will begin being sold again sometime after November 8th. Some tickets sold out, but most remain available for the event which will have at least 140,000 people in attendance. The only tickets to sell out were the 4-day memberships including preview night access. All others will be available when registration reopens. Comic-Con 2011 International: San Diego is scheduled for July 21-24, 2011.

Rossi & Murray

Two polls were released today, both of which show a close race. However, both also show different candidates in the lead.

The Fox News / POR-Rasmussen poll shows Patty Murray leading Dino Rossi with 49% of the vote to 47%.

The “Public Policy Polling” poll shows Republican Dino Rossi having taken the lead over Democrat Patty Murray. They have Rossi leading by 2 percentage points (50% to 48%).

This race is expected to remain a close one, up until election day, when we find out who will be the Washington State Senator. Murray is the current Senator. She has held office since 1993. Rossi is looking to unseat her. Will she do it? Find out on tomorrow on Election Day 2010.

ABIM

The results for the following Spring ABIM exams are in and can be accessed at the ABIM.org website:

* Adolescent Medicine
* Cardiovascular Disease
* Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology
* Critical Care Medicine
* Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism
* Gastroenterology
* Geriatric Medicine
* Hematology
* Infectious Disease
* Internal Medicine
* Interventional Cardiology
* Medical Oncology
* Nephrology
* Pulmonary Disease
* Rheumatology

The ABIM website has been loading slowly all morning as traffic to the site is imaginably higher than normal. The website does eventually load, it just takes a little extra time.

Crist & Meek

There is word today, that former President Bill Clinton has contacted Democrat Kendrick Meek, to try and see if he would be willing to drop out of the Florida Senate race. Meek says that this is not true, although Clinton did contact him.

“[Bill Clinton] didn’t ask me to drop out of the race,” Meek said to Fox.

Meek is also now accusing Charlie Crist of calling him and trying to get him to drop out of the senate race.

“I told him I’m not getting out of the race. I don’t sell out on the people of Florida,” explained Kendrick Meek.

Whether or not any of this is true, is still up for debate. When Charlie Crist was asked about the story, he said, “I wasn’t trying to get a deal done (get Meek to drop out).”

One can definitely see why Crist would want Meek to drop out of the race though. Meek is a Democrat, while Crist is running as an independent. However, Crist’s main following are democrats.

According to the latest Quinnipiac University Polls, Crist appears to have the support of 19% of Republicans, 51% of Democrats and 43% of independents. At the same time, Marco Rubio only is carrying 6% of Democrats. If Meek were to drop out of the senate race, Crist would most likely receive the 36 percent following that Meek currently has from the Democrats. If this were to happen, Crist would win the election hands down.

However, this isn’t the case. Meek plans on staying in the race. Crist is trailing Marco Rubio 42% to 35%, and that won’t win him the Senate seat.

Can Crist make up the ground prior to the November 2 election, without a Meek dropout? We shall wait and see.