“Imagine buying George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm on your Kindle, only for Amazon to reach into your device and remove the two classic novels. It sounds unsettling, but it happened in 2009 when a third-party seller lost the rights to distribute the books. Customers got their money back, and Amazon acknowledged that it had handled the situation poorly. But the incident raised a troubling question: what does it actually mean to own something in the digital marketplace?” (11/10/26)
“Thanks to a series of recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, it has become exceptionally difficult to sue a federal officer in federal court over an alleged constitutional rights violation. Yesterday, the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could further insulate federal officials from facing any civil liability for their misdeeds.” (11/10/26)
“The United States has withdrawn military aircraft from a second British airbase following a threat from Iran, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing people familiar with events. A number of American refuelling tankers were evacuated on Monday from Mildenhall Royal Air Force (RAF) base in eastern England after the purported threat, the newspaper said. Sky News said on Tuesday that 12 aircraft – nine tankers and three Osprey transporters – left Mildenhall on Monday, citing flight tracking sources. The WSJ noted ‘the precise nature’ of the Iranian threat remained ‘under discussion’ among US officials.” (11/10/26)
“Robby Soave gives his radar on former President Joe Biden releasing a memoir, where he goes into detail on his cancer diagnosis and his decision to not run for reelection in 2024.” (11/10/26)
“On the runway in Fairbanks, Ken Jouppi was loading his Cessna for a short hop to Beaver, Alaska, a village of a few dozen folks on the banks of the Yukon. His passenger was flying out to see her husband for her birthday, and she’d packed some beer in with the groceries. Troopers showed up with a warrant before the plane ever left the ground. Some of you might be thinking, yikes, is Jouppi another Andrew Carter Thornton II? ‘Cocaine Bear,’ the sequel? Nope. Beaver’s a dry town. Not the weather, the beer. Bringing alcohol into Beaver’s a crime, and he and his passenger were both convicted of a misdemeanor. Three days in jail apiece and a $1,500 fine, as low as the law goes. But then Alaska did something extraordinary: It took Jouppi’s plane.” (11/10/26)
“Democrat Mary Peltola inched further ahead of Republican U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in the Senate race on Monday after another small batch of preliminary election results was released by the Alaska Division of Elections. … With the new numbers, Peltola, a former U.S. representative, has grown her lead over Sullivan, a two-term Republican incumbent, to 2,517 first-choice votes, reflecting about 1.1% of the vote. Peltola previously held a lead of just 637 votes, or 0.3%. … Under ranked choice tabulation in races with more than two candidates, if no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, then the candidate who received the fewest votes is eliminated. Their supporters’ votes are then redistributed to those voters’ second choices. The process continues until one of the candidates has received more than 50% of the vote.” (11/10/26)