THE BIG STORY

The Supreme Court will let Pennsylvania count ballots received after election day, rejecting a Republican challenge

The US Supreme Court ruled 4-4 to allow Pennsylvania to count ballots received up to three days after Election Day, rejecting Republicans' challenge to expanding mail-in voting in the state.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. joined with the court's more liberal wing in rejecting the challenge to a longer absentee voting timeline. The 4-4 tie leaves in place a state court ruling that ordered the additional days of ballot-counting.

The possibility of multiple tie votes looms over the court's schedule after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September.

President Donald Trump announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee shortly after Ginsburg’s death, publicly saying that he wanted a full bench to hear any election-related cases that might reach the court.

Voters cast their ballots during early voting at a Nashville Public Library building on October 14, 2020. Brett Carlsen / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Facebook continues to host militant groups and ads despite ban on right-wing extremism

A new report found that despite Facebook’s ban on ring-wing militant organizations, some of those groups continue to organize and run pages on the social network.

The report from the Transparency Tech Project, a nonprofit watchdog organization, also found that Facebook continues to profit from ads placed by extremists despite an announcement earlier this year that said it would ban all ads that “praise, support or represent militarized social movements.”

In August, Facebook said it was banning right-wing militant, anarchist, and QAnon groups from its platform. But TTP found 45 pages and eight groups associated with right-wing extremist organizations two months later.

SNAPSHOTS

A woman in her thirties died of COVID-19 on a plane. The Texas woman died after she had trouble breathing while the plane was on the tarmac, about to take off from Arizona to Texas in July. It is unclear if the woman was aware that she had COVID-19 at the time of her death.

A ballot box fire in California is being investigated as arson. It wasn't immediately clear how many ballots may have been damaged in the ballot box fire outside a library in Los Angeles. Election officials will notify voters whose ballots may have been affected, the registrar's office said.

Microphones will be automatically muted during the final presidential debate after Trump caused chaos at the last one. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced that it will mute microphones at the start of each segment of Thursday night's debate to ensure both candidates can speak without interruption.

FEMA threw out the faulty ventilators Russia gave the US without ever using them. A FEMA spokesperson said the agency has “disposed of” 45 Russian ventilators delivered in crates stamped with “From Russia, With Love” as part of a US–Russia exchange of medical supplies but never used.

This is what actual teenagers think about Claudia Conway. The daughter of former Trump strategist Kellyanne Conway has been treated as a political hero, but fellow teens just find her relatable.

THIS REBOOT WORKS

Unsolved Mysteries is like watching a Reddit thread come to life

Are you watching Netflix’s reboot of Unsolved Mysteries? I keep hearing it is a carnival of spooks and genuine scares.

Alessa Dominguez wrote about the show’s popularity and why it works. “Focusing on perplexing crimes and stories about victims largely ignored by the genre, the true crime reboot actually cuts through the glut,” Dominguez writes.

True crime as a genre has a long history of focusing on white, middle-class protagonists. But as Dominguez writes, part of the success of the new series is that “through its careful story selection, the new Unsolved Mysteries flips the script to some degree, centering stories about working-class people, and people of color.”

WICKED VIRAL

A Boston woman has gone viral for voting at Fenway in a Pats jersey with her “Dunkies”

When officials opened the historic Fenway Park baseball stadium so Boston residents could vote outside during the pandemic, Laura Eastaugh seized her chance.

She showed up in a New England Patriots jersey and a mask that has the logo of every Boston team, and told a TV news crew that she “got her Dunkies,” and was excited to vote for Joe Biden.

The clip immediately went viral as being the most Boston thing to ever Boston.

WHDH / Via whdh.com

Stretch yourself towards a person you care about today,

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