When Vice President Kamala Harris was California’s attorney general, her team found evidence of corruption after the closure of a nuclear power plant left customer ratepayers to cover the multibillion-dollar settlement bill. Harris was criticized for failing to prosecute. Now, The Federalist has reviewed financial records revealing that the company operating the plant had been giving hundreds of thousands to state Democrats when Harris decided to look away.

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station permanently shut down in 2013, following a radiation leak the previous year. The settlement originally left customers with 70 percent of the financial burden, or $3.3 billion. And it left 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste on a popular California beach. 

As attorney general in California, Harris’s team uncovered evidence of a secret meeting between an executive of Southern California Edison (SCE) — the primary owner of the nuclear power plant — and the then-president of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to apparently draft the settlement. But as Harris was running for U.S. Senate in 2016, the investigation seemingly began to trail off.

Democrat then-Gov. Jerry Brown — who appointed members to the CPUC and endorsed Harris’ bid for Senate in 2016 — met with an SCE executive in 2013, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Later that year, SCE funneled $54,400 to his reelection campaign, state records show. Evidence later revealed another SCE executive secretly met with the then-CPUC president in Poland in 2013. This SCE executive had been a long-time contributor to the campaign

The first time I saw Donald Trump in person was at the Cleveland debate in 2015 when he mocked Rosie O’Donnell as a “fat pig,” “dog,” “slob,” and a “disgusting animal” following a question from Megyn Kelly. I then stood at the Capitol and watched him take the presidential oath 18 months later.

Trump is obviously one of the most unique figures to ever lead the country, and I had only seen Trump one other time — when he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). But I had never attended one of his signature rallies, characterized by NBC as “a key fixture of America’s political landscape for nearly a decade,” with more than 900 such events since the notorious golden escalator ride at Trump Tower. While browsing his events page Sunday night, I saw he was going to speak at a Pittsburgh stadium three hours from my home in Columbus, Ohio. Trump said in September he will not run again if he loses, so the rally was my last chance to hear him as a candidate.

I went to Pennsylvania less as a reporter and more as a spectator. With just hours to go until polls close, no one needs another column on how Trump says “X” about “Y” at another swing-state event, and I didn’t even bother with a press pass. Mystifying politicians is obnoxious and lame, but there’s an element of historical significance to Trump’s rallies worth acknowledging. After all, his crowd sizes were arguably one

Election Day is not going smoothly in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. The morning started with the Republican National Committee (RNC) naming Cambria as one of the counties that blocked Republican poll observers from entering polling places. It was resolved with RNC intervention.

And before the first brew of coffee was cold, there were reports of voting machines not scanning ballots.

The Cambria County Board of Commissioners, which is also the Board of Elections, released a statement confirming a software malfunction in the county’s electronic voting system was preventing voters from scanning their ballots.

The polls normally close at 8 p.m. EST on Election Day, but the board sought a court order to keep polls open longer, which was approved by the Cambria Court of Common Pleas. Polls will be open until 10 p.m. in Cambria County, but ballots cast after 8 p.m. will be cast as provisional ballots.

The Pennsylvania state and Cambria County Republican and Democrat parties joined the board of commissioners in the court request.

The county board of elections said people can still cast their vote.

“This should not discourage voters from voting at their voting precincts,” a statement from the board said. “No one should be turned away from the polls if they wish to cast their vote.”

From Johnstown, PA. All the flash drives on the ballot counting machines need to be replaced in Cambria county. They’re not counting the votes. Source Dave Luciew: pic.twitter.com/bdxOkqpaaw

— John Luciew (@JohnLuciew) November 5, 2024

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