Using a new method to measure the change in X-rays emitted from a distant star, astronomers may have for the first time located a planet orbiting a star in a neighboring galaxy, NBC News reports.

The planet is in the galaxy designated Messier 51, or M51, known as the Whirlpool Galaxy.  It orbits a binary star system, in which one of the stars is a neutron star or black hole, so instead of emitting visible light, it gives off X-rays.  Earth-bound astronomers leverage a process called transiting–when a planet passing between the sun and the observers, slightly dimming the sun’s glow–to identify the location, orbit and size of interstellar planets.

In this case, they adopted the transiting technique to measure the drop in X-rays coming from the binary star system to locate the planet.  The drop was repeated over a periodic time frame, showing the existence of a body orbiting the stars. 

Accused Texas con artist's scam breaks cellmate lover out of jail, both on the run: prosecutorshttps://t.co/jh4ZqeAucx

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 26, 2021

Alaska State Senator Josh Revak’s (R-Anchorage) open container citation from August has been dismissed after the state trooper who issued the $220 ticket was arrested and subsequently fired on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Revak claimed he was innocent and he didn’t know the beer was there at the time, which sounds like typical Republican bullshit until you read the part where – in a moment of bipartisanship too rare these days – it turned out his road trip partner from a fishing event, State Senator Scott Kawasaki (D-Faibanks) was the one boozing, told the cop as such, and Revak has been sober for seven years after struggling with alcoholism following combat injuries suffered in the Iraq War.

The problem took care of itself however, as now-former Alaska State Trooper Benjamin Strachan is probably headed to the Big Igloo for his scumbaggery, and unable to testify against Revak.

Claiming that he finds it impossible to have a productive conversation while wearing a mask, Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo said he attempted to accommodate the needs of the cancer-stricken legislator who kicked him out of a meeting, the Associated Press reports.

“I attempted in good faith to find some way for us to communicate that would respect each of our preferences,” Ladapo said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Having a conversation with someone while wearing a mask is not something I find productive, especially when other options exist.”

Ladapo claimed he offered to meet state senator Tina Polsky last Thursday in a hallway or outside–places where he believes he wouldn’t have to wear a mask–to facilitate the conversation.  Polsky informed Ladapo that she had a serious health condition that would require he wear a mask in her presence, but he still refused.  She revealed over the weekend that she is fighting breast cancer. 

“The noose from the gallows erected near US Capitol on January 6 is in the possession of the FBI Washington field office, per multiple law enforcement sources” NBC 4’s Scott McFarlane reports.

Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures have officially greenlit Dune Part II for a theaters-only release on October 20, 2023, IGN reports. Some folks (mainly me) had been concerned that the $165 million budgeted Dune Part I having premiered on HBO Max would fuck things up by killing hundreds of millions in box office revenue and causing the studio to wipe out House Villenueve kind of like the Padishah Emperor set up another one to… Anyway, rejoice fans. The spice will flow.

CNN: “‘I am a hunter – and I think you should be hunted,’ a woman can be heard saying in a voicemail left for Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in September. ‘You will never be safe in Arizona again.’ Or there’s the man who spit, ‘Die you bitch, die! Die you bitch, die!’ repeatedly into the phone, in another of several dozen threatening and angry voicemails directed at the Democratic secretary of state and shared exclusively with CNN by her office. Officials and aides in secretary of state offices in Arizona and other states targeted by former President Donald Trump in his attack on last year’s election results told CNN about living in constant terror – nervously watching the people around them at events, checking in their rearview mirrors for cars following them home and sitting up at night wondering what might happen next.”

“Law enforcement has never had to think much about protecting secretaries of state, let alone allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars in security, tracking and follow-up. Their jobs used to be mundane, unexciting, bureaucratic. These are small offices in a handful of states with enormous power in administering elections, from mailing ballots to overseeing voting machines to keeping track of counted votes. None were prepared to be publicly attacked. They don’t have the budgets to monitor threats, and certainly not to suddenly protect officials who never had to be protected before. No systems were in place on the state or federal level to back them up, and the Department of Justice admits that the federal government doesn’t yet have the infrastructure to handle the situation. Staff members in the offices say they’re dealing with long-term emotional and psychological trauma after a year of constant threats – in person and virtually – to the secretaries and to themselves.”

USA Today:  “A federal advisory committee Tuesday voted 17-0 to authorize use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5-11.  Children are far less likely than adults to be hospitalized with COVID-19 or suffer long-term consequences from the disease – putting a higher burden on the vaccine to prove safe and effective to justify its risk.

“The committee of vaccine experts and pediatricians said, while they are concerned about the unknowns, they felt the data is sufficient to support using Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine in this age group, because it is likely to benefit far more children than it will harm.  Families that are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 need to have access to the vaccine, several members said in describing their support for the measure. And the virus continues to pose a risk to children, they said.

“’It’s very hard for me to believe that the risk for a severe outcome is going to come close to the known risk that we’ve seen for this virus in this age group,’ said Dr. Patrick Moore, a virus expert at the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. ‘On top of that, thousands of kids that have been hospitalized, some of them are disabled from the virus, one top of the external cost to parents, to society, to schools, so forth. So to me, it seems like it’s a hard decision, but a clear one.’”

😃 World Series in Texas and Georgia…after ⁦@MLB⁩ nonsense with the All Star game.

Karma is beautiful. #GoStros #ForTheH https://t.co/ZebGOTY0R1

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 26, 2021

In a series of text messages with another government official, Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose characterized the highly gerrymandered redistricting map process as “asinine” before saying he would vote for it to placate Party officials, information uncovered by Democracy Docket reveals.

“This rationale is asinine,” LaRose told the unnamed individual in a text message about the process used to develop the redistricting map released by the state.  “I should vote no.”

“It will be cited in the court [case] against the GOP,” the person responds.  “Probably not worth it.”

“That was my intention,” LaRose answers.  “But yes.  It’s a temper tantrum vote for no reason.  None the less it’s asinine.  Second asinine thing I’m voting for tonight.”

New York Times: “Dr. Deborah Birx, who helped run the coronavirus pandemic response for former President Donald J. Trump, told congressional investigators earlier this month that Trump’s White House failed to take steps that could have prevented tens of thousands of deaths. In closed-door testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Birx said that tens of thousands of deaths could have been prevented after the initial phase of the pandemic if Trump had pushed mask-wearing, social distancing and other efforts to slow the spread of the virus.”

“‘I believe if we had fully implemented the mask mandates, the reduction in indoor dining, the getting friends and family to understand the risk of gathering in private homes, and we had increased testing, that we probably could have decreased fatalities into the 30 percent less to 40 percent less range,’ Birx testified, according to excerpts provided by the committee. The committee’s interview with Birx was conducted on Oct. 12 and 13. In her testimony, she also lashed out at Dr. Scott Atlas, a former Stanford neuroradiologist who became an adviser to Trump and advocated for allowing the virus to spread through much of the population in order to let otherwise healthy people build up immunity against it. She told the committee that Atlas had relied on incomplete information to draw dangerous conclusions that she felt could have long-term consequences for people who were infected with the virus and got sick.”

“A Capitol riot defendant has been released from pre-trial jail after a judge expressed worries about the jail’s ‘toxic environment.’ Thomas Sibick, 35, will be turned over to the custody of his parents, who were ordered by Judge Amy Berman Jackson to limit their son’s access to cable news and social media. In her ruling, Jackson noted that Sibick ‘has gone through extraordinary lengths to separate himself’ from the other inmates in the jail unit, who are largely Jan. 6 rioters.”

“Sibick said he requested solitary confinement to get away from the other imprisoned defendants, whom his lawyer said had become ‘almost cult-like.’ Sibick’s attorney also noted that his client’s ‘mental thought process has changed a lot.’ In a letter addressed to Jackson, Sibick called Jan. 6 ‘a disgrace to our nation that left a scar Trump is ultimately responsible for.’ He said he now loathes Trump, adding, ‘I disagree with what occurred that fateful day.’ Prosecutors allege Sibick ‘eagerly and tenaciously’ breached the Capitol, posing for photos with an officer’s riot shield and taking a cop’s badge home with him before burying it in his backyard” – Daily Beast.

AFP: “A Senate panel probing the Brazilian government’s pandemic response asked the Supreme Court and prosecutor general’s office Tuesday to suspend President Jair Bolsonaro from social media for falsely linking Covid-19 vaccines to AIDS. The Senators called for the far-right leader to be barred indefinitely from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram after he cited non-existent ‘official reports’ from the UK government allegedly finding fully vaccinated people are developing AIDS ‘much faster than expected.’ Bolsonaro made the claim Thursday in his weekly live address on Facebook, which has removed the video for violating its policies on spreading misinformation.'”

“YouTube went a step further Monday, suspending Bolsonaro for a week, in addition to blocking the clip. The request came as the Senate commission, which has spent the past six months investigating the Bolsonaro government’s pandemic response, prepared to vote on a damning final report that recommends the president face multiple charges, including crimes against humanity, for downplaying Covid-19 and flouting expert advice on containing it. The pandemic has claimed more than 600,000 lives in Brazil, second only to the United States.”

? On Monday, Kansas State Senator Gene Sullentrop was sentenced to two days in jail for a twelve mile drunken car chase, after which he called the arresting officer “donut boy”.

? On Monday, Utah state Rep. Travis Seegmiller was charged with 3 misdemeanors over an August incident when he shot a deer on the lawn of a private residence, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

? On Monday, the Justice Department announced a federal grand jury indicted Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey and a Nashville social club owner with violating campaign finance laws as part of an alleged scheme to benefit Kelsey’s 2016 campaign for U.S. Congress.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The first one was already proven guilty and got off with a slap on the wrist, so that’ll probably happen with the other two.

“Republicans in the state Senate announced Monday they were launching a review of a recently completed audit of the 2020 election, just days after one of their members said the audit had shown voting had been safe and secure. The announcement kicked off a review – limited in scope for now – of an audit that was completed three days earlier after months of work. A separate, more expansive review by Assembly Republicans is ongoing.”

“Senate leaders announced their plans just hours after Assembly Republicans disclosed they had hired more attorneys at taxpayer expense to try to make sure their review survives a legal challenge. Senate Republicans do not plan to hire outside attorneys or investigators to assist them and their work could take only a short period. The Assembly review is costing taxpayers $676,000 and could stretch into next year” reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

In related news if you give a mouse a cookie he’ll want a glass of milk. If you give him a glass of milk then he’ll want to go to bed. If you put him in bed he’ll ask you to read him a story. If you read him a story then he’ll get excited and want to draw pictures. If you give him crayons…

Walking through Washington Reagan National Airport with Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, nominal Democratic Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema ignores questions from a woman who says she is one of Sinema’s constituents from Tucson. Sinema apologizes to Scott for her constituent asking questions, to which Scott replies, “It’s par for the course.”

CNN: “Joe Biden and Donald Trump are locked in an extraordinary and escalating clash that has profound political consequences now and into 2024. Biden took the showdown, which was triggered by the fallout over the US Capitol insurrection, up another notch on Monday by refusing to assert executive privilege over a second batch of documents that Trump wants to prevent the National Archives from turning over to the House select committing probing the January 6 attack. The development was first reported by CNN. There have been occasions in US history when former presidents have sniped at and tried to undermine their successors. Many presidents have expressed private frustration with the antics of their predecessors. But nothing in the modern era matches the confrontation between the 45th and 46th Presidents.”

“Trump is mostly responsible for that. He has convinced tens of millions of his voters that Biden is an illegitimate president through lies about voter fraud. The twice-impeached former President’s attempt to hamstring the January 6 committee is also in line with his repeated efforts to avoid consequences for his anti-democratic behavior. Trump’s claims that he alone has the right to assert executive privilege also appear designed to obstruct the committee’s work with interminable legal suits and appeals through multiple courts. Paradoxically, efforts to hold the former President to account may offer him the kind of oxygen he craves for his politics of insurrection. Trump and his allies have branded Biden’s refusal to cooperate with his political power grabs as evidence of a political vendetta against the ex-President. The last thing that Biden wants, however, is yet more confrontations with his once and potentially future rival.”

“If Terry McAuliffe holds on to defeat Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia governor’s race, a large number of Republicans will blame Donald Trump. McAuliffe has assiduously tied Youngkin to Trump. Youngkin has followed a careful strategy of appealing to both Trump cultists and moderates. Should he lose, it would be a proof point that blue-state Republicans can’t keep a foot in both camps. They would have to denounce the former president more forcefully to gain the credibility they need to win statewide office, a step that would erode Trump’s influence over the party. So a McAuliffe win would be a devastating blow for Trump’s power base within the GOP. Yet here is a funny thing. Nobody within the GOP, not even those who complain about his influence, wants this outcome.”

“What’s the reason for this curious choice? It’s not that mainstream Republicans are morons. They’re perfectly aware of the stakes Trump has in the race. But they have other, normal Republican reasons to prefer a Youngkin victory: They would end Democratic control of Virginia, throw a scare into national Democrats, help their own fundraising, and so on. And faced with a choice between advancing normal Republican politics and prying their party loose from Trump’s grip, they are picking door No. 1 en masse. This is the basic choice the Republican Establishment has been making for more than half a dozen years now. The last time Republicans made it was during Trump’s second impeachment. At first the insurrection so revolted them they briefly set out to make a permanent break that would prevent Trump from running again. Then they lost their nerve but told themselves they would isolate him from the party and eliminate his power without holding an impeachment vote. Then they simply gave up on that plan altogether” – Jonathan Chait.