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A Leaker?

Mark Zuckerberg faced a mixture of tough and softball questions at yesterday’s Senate hearing. Many questions were left unanswered, and members of the House will have to pick up the slack today. The toughest questions in the Senate hearing came from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), who grilled Zuckerberg on Facebook’s political bias, its possible status as the “largest publisher in the world”, and its definition of “hate speech.” Democrats, when they weren’t urging Zuckerberg to do more to censor so-called “hate speech,” focused on irrelevant panics like Russian propaganda and “fake...

More than two dozen Senate Republicans are urging President Trump to re-engage in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The 25 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Friday saying they support his recent comments that he may consider U.S. participation if the 11-nation Asia-Pacific pact is improved.

The GOP tax plan was passed through the Senate Friday night in a 51-49 vote. There are a number of things included in the last-minute text, including a provision by Sen. Gardner of Colorado that exempts Kombucha, a fermented tea drink, from alcoholic taxes and regulations. Why it matters: These are small examples of what got slipped in the bill last-minute as the Senate vote neared, and reveals some of the senators' pet projects back in their home states. Odd amendments included in the tax plan: Sen. Orrin Hatch Prohibit things like cash and gift cards to be given as...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

Gina McCarthy, administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, overstayed her welcome in Alaska last year. When Alaskan native tribes honored the EPA worker with gifts, she returned the favor by telling the Wall Street Journal she threw one of the “f-ing things away” and that the moose meat she was given could “gag a maggot.” During Wednesday’s Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) grilled McCarthy about her ‘disturbing’ comments that were featured in the largely positive Wall Street Journal profile. “A lot of people saw that as a glowing article,” he said. “Most people in Alaska...

Lawmakers have failed in past attempts to rename North America’s highest mountain, but a new proposal may have a better chance this year under a Republican Congress, according to an aide to an Alaska lawmaker who is resurrecting the effort. U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan have introduced a bill to give Mount McKinley its historical Alaska Native name. The Alaska Republicans announced a Senate bill Wednesday to formally call the 20,320-foot mountain by its Athabascan name, Denali, KTUU reported. The bill comes after previous efforts by Murkowski failed. …

Finally. An additional 7,286 votes were added to the Alaska Senate totals today so far. And while Begich received almost 58% of those votes, Sullivan still leads by 6,211 votes. It is believed there will no more than 3,000 additional ballots to count by this Wednesday (Nov 19).

Republican candidate Dan Sullivan defeated Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race Wednesday. The win gives the GOP eight Senate pickups in the midterm elections. The party is also seeking a ninth seat in Louisiana’s runoff in December.

<p>Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan defeated Sen. Mark Begich, the Democratic incumbent, in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race Wednesday – a win that gives the GOP eight Senate pickups in the midterm elections.</p> <p>The Republican Party also is seeking a ninth seat in Louisiana’s runoff in December.</p>

<p>Republican candidate Dan Sullivan defeated Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race Wednesday.</p> <p>The win gives the GOP eight Senate pickups in the midterm elections. The party is also seeking a ninth seat in Louisiana’s runoff in December.</p>

JUNEAU, Alaska — Republican Dan Sullivan won Alaska's U.S. Senate race, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich. Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on Election Night last week, and when state officials counted absentee and questioned ballots Tuesday, the results indicated that Begich could not overcome Sullivan's lead.

Alaska will begin counting nearly 50,000 absentee and questioned ballots on Tuesday in an effort to resolve the state's unsettled contests for the Senate and for governor. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich trails Republican challenger Dan Sullivan by about 8,100 votes. ... The Alaska governor's race is also too close to call. Independent candidate Bill Walker leads incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell by about 3,000 votes.

According to analyses conducted by Alaska-based media outlets, it is looking increasingly unlikely that Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) will retain his seat in the next Congress. At the end of the night on Tuesday, GOP candidate Dan Sullivan emerged with a more than an 8,000-vote lead over Begich, but it could not be projected whether Sullivan’s 3.6-point advantage over the incumbent would hold after al of Alaska’s 21,000 plus absentee ballots were counted. Increasingly, though, Alaskan media outlets are coming around to the view that Begich’s deficit is too great to make up in uncounted votes. Last week, an...

Alaska Democratic Senator Mark Begich is counting on votes that are not yet counted in the Last Frontier’s Senate race. One hundred percent of the precincts are in and Begich’s GOP challenger Dan Sullivan is currently in the lead by 8,000 votes. But, the incumbent Democrat is insisting that more rural votes could change the outcome. ABC News has the specifics: According to Gail Fenumiai, the director of the Alaska Division of Elections, there are 23,271 early and absentee ballots deemed eligible for counting. These are already received and reviewed as eligible. They sent out another 12,541 absentee ballots and...

Neither the Alaska Senate race nor the Alaska gubernatorial race have been called -- and both may take a while. ...we may not have an answer to the questions of who is the new Senator and Governor from the Last Frontier for weeks because there are still votes to be counted and that won’t start until next week....there are 23,271 early and absentee ballots deemed eligible for counting. These are already received and reviewed as eligible. They sent out another 12,541 absentee ballots and if postmarked by November 4th, ballots can arrive legally 15 days after the election and still...

Republicans picked up another Senate seat Wednesday.Dan Sullivan led Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, by more than 8,000 votes with 100 percent reporting, according to Associated Press data.The outcome obliterated any last hope among Democrats for a silver lining to Tuesday's Republican wave, and capped a banner Election Day for the GOP.

Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich wasn't conceding anything Wednesday in his race against Republican challenger Dan Sullivan. Sullivan held a 3.6 percentage point lead over Begich with all precincts reporting. Thousands of absentee ballots won't be counted until Nov. 11. In a statement Wednesday, Begich campaign manager Susanne Fleek-Green said the campaign wants a final vote count. Republicans said they believe the margin is insurmountable.

Alaska voters approved a ballot measure aimed at adding a hurdle to the potential development of a major copper and gold mine. The measure requires the state’s legislature to approve any proposed mining project in the Bristol Bay watershed. It targets the Pebble Mine, a planned copper and gold mine that would be the largest of its kind in the world. Environmentalists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and some Alaska native tribes want to stop the mine due to its potential impact on wildlife in Bristol Bay and the watershed, including a massive salmon population. Sixty-five percent of voters approved...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — While the rest the nation examines how and why the Republicans took control of the Senate, the races in Alaska remain undeclared. At the time of writing, Republican Dan Sullivan was four points ahead of incumbent Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) — a lead that appears insurmountable given that nearly all the precincts have reported back. Assuming there are no surprises in whatever votes were still in play -- including absentee ballots -- Sullivan may be on track to be the last big win for the Republican Party. According to Alaska's Division of Elections, the independent gubernatorial candidate...