Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Postmates, and Instacart convinced nearly 60 percent of Californian voters to support Proposition 22, which excludes “gig workers” from basic labor protections. The companies overwhelmed the opposition and muddled the truth with a record-breaking $200 million campaign, pelting voters with misleading ads that framed the proposal as a social justice cause. It marks a dangerous new phase in big tech’s onslaught against workers, and a pivotal test of whether labor can push back. Prop 22 reverses the momentum activists had in 2019, when they passed California’s AB5, which recognized gig workers as full employees, entitling them to labor rights like unemployment insurance, paid sick leave, overtime, and a path to unionizing. Prop 22 exempts the gig companies from AB5, and instead creates a “third category” of independent contractors with a few perks. Drivers will now receive limited health benefits, but only for those who log enough hours, and an hourly pay “guarantee” that a UC Berkeley Labor Center study found to be worth $5.64. The law requires the near-impossible support of seven-eighths of California’s legislature to make any changes, including any measure that would let workers collectively bargain. Veena Dubal, a labor law professor at UC Hastings, told me that Prop 22’s passage represents “the most radical undoing of labor legislation since Taft-Hartley in 1947,” the law that debilitated the power granted to unions by the New Deal. “It will create a growing precariat of people who work very hard and are not able to survive off of their earnings. And it will have an impact on American politics for decades, if not the next century.”

The man who purchased the gun Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly used in shootings that killed two in Kenosha earlier this year is now facing charges and court documents show the gun was bought in Ladysmith. Dominick Black, 19, is charged with two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 causing death. According to the criminal complaint filed in Kenosha County Court: Black purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle from Ladysmith Ace Home Center up in Ladysmith on May 1, 2020. The complaint says Black bought the gun with money from Rittenhouse with the intention of giving the gun to him. Rittenhouse was 17 at the time and thus not of legal age to buy a gun in Wisconsin. Rittenhouse and Black agreed the gun would be stored at Black's stepfather's home in Kenosha. The address of that home matches the address listed for Black on the criminal complaint.

The 29-year-old progressive political commentator has risen to the top of the platform after 80-plus hours of live election coverage.

To hear some people tell it -- including a handful of prominent Republicans, such as members of President Trump's family and supporters like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell -- you might think that Democrats were using dead people to steal Michigan's Electoral College votes from Trump.

Downing Street’s congratulatory message to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on winning the US presidential election contains a hidden message congratulating Donald Trump for winning a second term in office. The message, posted on Twitter as an image a few hours after the US TV networks called the election for Biden, congratulates the president-elect on his election, and Harris “on her historic achievement”. But the image, a simple white-on-black block of text, is more than it seems. A simple colour adjustment reveals a second message hidden in the background. Above and behind the words “Joe Biden on his election”, the shadow of the words “Trump on” become faintly visible. Where the main message reads “the US is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together”, the words “second term” appear. And below the words “shared priorities” is the phrase “on the future of this”. The message, first reported by the Guido Fawkes blog, suggests that No 10 was preparing for the possibility of congratulating Donald Trump on a re-election long after it had become clear that Joe Biden was winning the count in key battleground states. But the baffling decision to alter a pre-existing image rather than create an entirely new one, let alone to not then fully delete the original message, looks likely to create more friction between the UK government and the incoming administration. A UK government spokesperson said: “As you’d expect, two statements were prepared in advance for the outcome of this closely contested election. A technical error meant that parts of the alternative message were embedded in the background of the graphic.”

Michael Moore explains why the Democrats won the election, why defunding the police makes sense, and where progressives go from here.

The DOJ official overseeing election fraud stepped down hours after Barr authorized prosecutors to examine allegations of voting “irregularities.”

Hillbilly Elegy, the new Ron Howard film based on J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir, offers little more than enduring stereotypes about Appalachia.

A follower of the feverish conspiracy theory QAnon is currently leading an Assembly race for a historically blue seat in South Brooklyn.

“They’re saying, ‘Stay in the fight!’ ” one campaign source told CNN. “Hard for people to stay in the fight when they’ll be unemployed a week from today.” This source also said that campaign leadership noted the lackluster attendance at Monday’s staff meeting, which was announced with just 15 minutes’ notice. With the uncertain prospect of continued employment with the campaign, many staffers are on the hunt for a new job. That, too, is getting some in trouble. Soon after the staff meeting, campaign manager Stepien’s assistant shouted at a campaign staffer for printing their resume in the office.

Thirty years after its finale, ‘Mr. Belvedere’ — and this legendary testicular mishap — has become part of internet lore and even slang. Is any of it true?

Keep your masks on, everybody.

People who attended the president’s Election Night watch party have begun testing positive.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine describe, in the journal Science, a new method to extract tiny but extremely powerful SARS-CoV-2 antibody fragments from llamas, which could be fashioned into inhalable therapeutics with the potential to prevent and treat COVID-19.

Harvard spent months planning a fall semester in the hopes of avoiding a repeat of the spring, when workers were exposed to the full force of the pandemic — including at least one who contracted COVID-19 after cleaning President Lawrence Bacow’s residence on March 19. Yet this fall, workers continue to face new iterations of the same anxieties over workplace safety and economic security. In the first week of August, Harvard University Dining Services employees received emails and phone calls to report for training on Aug. 20. After a six month hiatus, they were returning to work. Anabela A. and Christopher M. Pappas, a married couple who have worked for HUDS for a combined seven decades, were first told by the University that everyone would be tested before returning. For Anabela, who has Type I diabetes and is thus potentially at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, the protocol was a relief: She could finally return safely to the students and job that she cherished. But five days before the training, rumors began to swirl: There were some difficulties administering the tests. Through phone calls from House building management, the Pappases learned that HUDS workers were not required to get tested before returning. Instead, they would receive coronavirus tests immediately as the first part of training. Worried for her safety, Anabela decided not to go to training. Citing doctor’s notes and her diabetes, she asked to delay her start until all dining hall workers had been tested. Her request was refused: Human resources, she says, told her “you’re either in or you’re out.” Only after what her husband describes as “a bit of an arm wrestle” with HR, she received — and is still on — paid leave. But for many other employees, that wasn’t an option — they had to report to work to claim their job and wages. “They didn’t give us a choice to come back,” says Emily, a HUDS employee in Quincy House who spoke under the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy. “You either came back or, you know, you lost your pay.”

An off-duty Forest Grove police officer faces a criminal mischief allegation after a resident reported that he stumbled into the family’s driveway early Halloween morning, banged and kicked at their front door and yelled at them to fight. Forest Grove police quickly caught the alleged intruder about 50 yards away and recognized him as one of their own, even giving Officer Steven Teets a ride to his nearby house, investigators confirmed Monday... Police also don’t have body camera video of Teets' escort home because the officer who picked him up and gave him a ride home had a body camera that was not recording, a potential violation of department policy that’s now under investigation, officials said...

At the start of the pandemic, comedy writer Joey Clift set out to harness a nation’s boredom by embarking upon a populist campaign to create a full album for every state.

Kel Murphy-Duford — the 30-year-old man who had been unconscious and on a ventilator at Harborview Medical Center, following his arrest on the evening of Nov. 4 — now appears to be awake and is recuperating. He has since been discharged from the hospital, according to Harborview’s media department. Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers originally arrested Murphy-Duford on the evening of Nov. 4, claiming he was engaging in property damage. During his arrest, Murphy-Duford apparently suffered a medical emergency that rendered him unconscious, but it is unclear what triggered the emergency. Emergency personnel allegedly said that the man had a seizure. He was subsequently taken to Harborview, where he remained unconscious on a ventilator for several days. In a brief post shared on the afternoon of Nov. 7 on the GoFundMe page set up for him, Murphy-Duford said that SPD was withholding his insulin delivery system until Nov. 10. Murphy-Duford is diabetic, as his lawyers shared in an email forwarded to the Emerald on the evening of Nov. 6. Murphy-Duford’s post on the GoFundMe page did not specify why SPD is withholding his medical property or how he was getting his insulin.

Some lawyers at Jones Day and Porter Wright, which have filed suits about the 2020 vote, said they were worried about undermining the electoral system.

The Philadelphia site of Rudy Giuliani’s speech is being put to another use.