Energy
Quinn Stalls Drilling in Illinois
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The boom in shale drilling has led to jobs and income gains in North Dakota, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Illinois could be another gusher, but not if Governor Pat Quinn keeps interfering.
Greens: A GOP Senate might not be so bad
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Elana Schor
Sure, Republicans would use their control of the upper chamber to craft attacks on the White House’s climate agenda from both ends of the Capitol, seeking to throttle EPA’s air and water regulations and force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. But environmental groups have already had to hone their defensive skills in the closely divided Senate, whose rules will continue to make it hard to pass legislation no matter which party is in charge. And greens have President Barack Obama’s veto pen as the ultimate backstop.
In Texas, an Unlikely Battleground Over Fracking
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Leslie Eaton
In Denton, a fast-growing city of about 123,000 people that sits on top of the Barnett Shale, the battle isn’t over global warming and energy independence. Instead, voters are wrestling with the very practical inconveniences of having natural-gas drilling sites nearby: noise, fumes, truck traffic, accidents, health concerns and anxiety over property values. Both sides say the vote could be close.
Oil slides after Saudi Arabia cuts prices in US
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Emiko Terazono
Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia on Monday lowered the price it charges customers in the US in an effort to prop up its share of the American market.
Technology
Advocates plan massive push for online sales tax
THE HILL
Megan R. Wilson, Bernie Becker
Advocates for giving states more freedom to collect sales taxes on online purchases are launching a last-minute lobbying flurry, believing the looming post-election session of Congress will be their best shot to get a bill signed into law. The bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, has a history of bipartisan Senate support, and its backers have long believed that it is just a matter of time before it gets across the finish line. Now, proponents of the bill have a few reasons to believe that time has come, as Congress prepares for the sort of lame-duck session that is known for deal-making.
The Politics of Net Neutrality: Five Things to Watch
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gautham Nagesh
Companies and Internet consumer advocates – not to mention lawyers and lobbyists – are parsing the news from last week that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is laying the groundwork for a new plan on how broadband Internet service is regulated. His emerging plan would expand the agency’s authority over broadband service. While the issue is highly technical, and legal, there are some strong political undercurrents as well.
NSA Director Offers Olive Branch in Silicon Valley Speech
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Danny Yadron
The director of the National Security Agency said Monday that he understands why Silicon Valley companies have beefed up security to keep out government agencies, including his own. The statement, during a speech by Adm. Michael Rogers at Stanford University, marked a small olive branch amid rising tension between technology companies and Washington following disclosures about the extent of electronic surveillance by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
With Tor, Facebook is first social media giant to venture into the ‘dark Web’
WASHINGTON POST
Justin Moyer
But now, Zuckerberg will give Facebook users entree to the anonymous “dark Web” with software called Tor — a first for a Silicon Valley monolith. “Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world,” according to the software’s Web site. “It prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.”
Struggling in the shadow of Silicon Valley wealth
USA TODAY
Jon Swartz
A few miles from Facebook’s sprawling, opulent headquarters, police officers cuff a suspect in a hardscrabble neighborhood, while sirens wail not far away. Bars frame windows. Patrol cars crisscross the streets near Cesar Chavez Academy, where school children frolic. Homeless people wander. They share the same zip code with Facebook, but live worlds apart.
Finance
Disparate Impact Rejected
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The Obama Administration’s disregard for the law took another hit on Monday when a federal judge tossed out its regulation imposing “disparate impact” racial policy on housing. Disparate-impact legal theory relies on racial statistical disparities in lending, housing, or other business practice without having to show evidence of actual discriminatory intent. These pages have long argued that this was never contemplated by the 1968 Fair Housing Act and is also unfair. There may be many reasons for a racial disparity in home loans—for example, financial qualifications—that have nothing to do with discrimination. Yet businesses routinely settle when hit by disparate-impact claims because the reputational cost of fighting is too great.
J.P. Morgan Being Probed by Justice Department
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Emily Glazer
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of its foreign-exchange-related matters and bumped up a figure measuring the bank’s potential legal costs by $1.3 billion, according to a regulatory filing that the bank released Monday.
Gap Narrows in Access to SEC Filings
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Scott Patterson, Ryan Tracy and Andrew Ackerman
A time lag that could give some investors early access to market-moving documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission has all but disappeared, according to an academic tracking the data. Delays between the time a private data feed publishes regulatory filings to the SEC and when the filings appear on the agency’s website have diminished since Wednesday afternoon, said Prof. Robert Jackson of Columbia Law School. The shift came after The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that some sophisticated investors were gaining access to documents ahead of others.
SEC Inches Closer to ‘Five-Cent Tick’ Test
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Andrew Ackerman
U.S. securities regulators took a step toward establishing a one-year test of trading some stocks in five-cent increments, after more than a decade of trading in pennies. The Securities and Exchange Commission said late Monday it was releasing for public comment a highly-anticipated plan to determine whether trading the stocks of smaller companies in wider “tick sizes,” or the difference between what traders bid and offer for the shares, would boost interest in the stocks.
Driving Student Borrowers Into Default
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
Congress helped cause this problem in 2005 when it rushed through without debate a provision that makes private student loan debt virtually impossible to discharge through the bankruptcy process. (The same is true of federal loans.) Since then, lenders have had no incentive to work out arrangements with borrowers who want to pay but don’t have the means to do so under the original terms of the loan. Now it’s time for Congress to fix that error either by rescinding the bankruptcy provision or requiring lenders to create clearly advertised flexible payment plans in exchange for retaining it. Beyond that, Congress should require of private lenders what it already requires of mortgage services, which must respond in a timely way to requests for a modified payment schedule. The aim is to help delinquent borrowers find a way to meet their obligations. Student borrowers should have the same chance.
Bringing Commodities Regulation to Bitcoin
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mark Wetjen
Regulators should work quickly to understand how these technologies work and how they affect specific regulatory jurisdictions, with the ultimate goal of creating a regulatory framework should the public begin adopting or using these technologies in greater numbers. Creating a flexible and rational regulatory framework also is the best way for regulators to respond to previous incidents such as Mt. Gox, Liberty Reserve or Silk Road—serious innovators will choose to work within such a regime in the U.S. rather than avoid it, which in turn will build more confidence in consumers currently leery of embracing the new technology, or something like it. That will lay the groundwork for future innovation in virtual currencies.
Obama has first one-on-one chat with Federal Reserve chief
THE HILL
Justin Sink
President Obama and Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen discussed the long-term outlook for the U.S. economy in their first one-on-one meeting since she took charge at the central bank, the White House said Monday. The pair also discussed the president’s upcoming trip to Asia and Australia, which is expected to include discussion of a Pacific trade deal and a meeting of the G-20 economies.
Politics
Harry Reid’s Fateful Evening
POLITICO
Jon Ralston
Nobody in politics has had a worse run-up to Nov. 4 than Harry Reid. Polls indicate the Senate majority leader might have a change of title foisted upon him—or, in the fevered dreams of some Republicans, perhaps be left with no title at all as he sees a grim Schumer reaper shadowing him. Back home in Nevada, Reid’s vaunted political machine has not driven Democrats to the polls and a GOP sweep of statewide offices seems possible, the Blame Reid Firsters already have begun whispering. And as unflattering pictures of him appear in battleground states across the country and his ninth political life seems set to expire, Reid has to confront the possibility that he might lose the Senate, his leadership position and his Nevada invincibility, all in one potentially fateful evening.
Big Issues for New Senate: Border, Health-Care Repeal, Energy
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Laura Meckler
Republican candidates and a few Democrats toughened their stands on illegal immigration. The GOP hardened its vows to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Minimum-wage increases championed by Democrats drew some GOP support. … GOP candidates and some Democrats promised to green-light energy plans, such as the Keystone XL pipeline, while Republicans promised to fight Obama administration rules like one aiming to control carbon emissions from power plants.
How Big a Night Will It Be for the GOP?
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Charlie Cook
The odds of Republicans winning a Senate majority are obviously getting very high. Indeed, it would be a real shocker if Democrats held the GOP to a net gain of five seats or less, preventing a takeover of the majority. Unresolved, however, remains the question of just how big a night Republicans will have, and in turn, how to best interpret the results. At this point, at least in the Senate, this election seems to be a whole lot about the map, with more than a little political environment, including President Obama’s current unpopularity, thrown in for good measure.
The Senate will go Republican, the election models say
WASHINGTON POST
Chris Cillizza
There’s at least a seven in ten chance that Republicans will net the six seats the party needs to reclaim the Senate majority heading into the 114th Congress, according to the three major election models that aim to forecast the results of Tuesday’s vote.
Math is forbidding for Democrats in struggle for Senate
WASHINGTON POST
David A. Fahrenthold, Katie Zezima and Paul Kane
On the last day of the 2014 campaign, Democrats knew they were in trouble. Long ago, the party had given up hope of winning back the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections. By Monday, it had skipped ahead to winning the post-election blame game. “House Democrats have succeeded on every measure within our control,” the party’s House campaign committee announced preemptively in the early afternoon. And at the end of a bitter and massively expensive campaign, it appeared the Senate might be slipping from Democrats’ grasp as well.
Where did Obama go wrong?
WASHINGTON POST
Juliet Eilperin and David Nakamura
Obama’s journey from triumphant, validated Democratic hero to a political millstone weighing on his party’s chances is a tale of a second-term president quickly and repeatedly sidetracked by a series of crises — some self-inflicted — and the widely held perception that the White House has not managed them well. The fallout has led to questions about the president’s effectiveness, his resolve and his general ability to lead, at home and abroad.
Election 2014: A new level of collaboration between candidates and big-money allies
WASHINGTON POST
Matea Gold
The 2014 midterm elections mark a new level of collaboration between candidates and independent groups, eroding the barrier that is supposed to separate those running for office from their big-money allies. The vast sums of cash raised by independent groups have reordered the political landscape, compelling campaigns to find new ways to communicate their wants and needs without officially coordinating with outside players. Such direct coordination is prohibited under 40-year-old campaign finance rules.
Obama and the Black Vote
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Voting habits are durable, but over the years they often do change. President Obama is asking for black votes as a matter of racial solidarity because he can’t make the case based on results. If black Americans decide not to rush to the polls this year to reward Democrats for this track record, no one should be surprised, least of all the President.
Death by Data
NEW YORK TIMES
David Brooks
Today we have a lot of technical innovation, but not a lot of political creativity. The ecosystem no longer produces as much entrepreneurship — mutations that fuel evolution. Data-driven candidates sacrifice their own souls. Instead of being inner-directed leaders driven by their own beliefs, they become outer-directed pleasers driven by incomplete numbers.
Little Opposition Seen in Some Votes to Raise State Minimum Wages
NEW YORK TIMES
Steven Greenhouse
In state after state, labor unions and community groups have pushed lawmakers to raise the minimum wage, but those efforts have faltered in many places where Republicans control the legislature. Frustrated by this, workers’ advocates have bypassed the legislature and placed a minimum-wage increase on the ballot in several red states — and they are confident that voters will approve those measures on Tuesday. In Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, binding referendums would raise the state minimum wage above the $7.25 an hour mandated by the federal government.
Colorado and Oregon will vote on GMO labeling Tuesday. Here’s what’s at stake.
VOX
Brad Plumer
It’s time to debate GMO labeling — again. On Tuesday, residents in Colorado and Oregon will vote on whether packaged foods that contain genetically modified ingredients should be labeled as such in stores. … Here’s what the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) said in 2012: “The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.” The European Commission agreed, after sifting through 25 years of research.
Half of Obamacare users wouldn’t return to the exchanges this year: survey
WASHINGTON TIMES
Tom Howell Jr.
Disenchanted by high prices and technology woes, more than half of the households that used an Obamacare exchange last year said they would not use the portal again in the upcoming sign-up period, according to a survey released Monday.
Labor, biz united behind postal reform push in the lame duck
THE HILL
Bernie Becker
Unions and the business mailing industry, tired of years of stalled efforts on postal reform, are teaming up to try to push through legislation to help the U.S. Postal Service after Tuesday’s elections. Organized labor and the mailing industry — which includes banks, catalog companies and a slew of other sectors reliant on the USPS — have long had different priorities when it comes to shoring up an agency that has lost billions of dollars in recent years. But top lawmakers are pessimistic that a broad postal reform deal can be reached in Congress’s lame-duck session. So, the two groups are uniting behind a narrower deal that would include concessions from both sides and simply ignore some of the most divisive postal issues.
