In today’s newsletter: Three NBC News reporters hit the road for a six-day trip to discover what’s on voters’ minds.
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what → hit → minds
The attorney for a former Cornell University student says law enforcement and the school failed to protect her after she raised allegations of sexual assault.
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she → say → assault
And Jack Smith faces questions on his handling of the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
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Smith → face → results
Drive to Decision Day: What voters are most concerned about heading into midterms
Americans are frustrated with the direction the country is headed as the midterm elections approach — an atmosphere that typically blows up on the party in power.
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that → drive → power
They’re angry about rising prices, ballooning interest rates and foreign wars.
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They → ’re → prices
They are afraid that AI will automate many jobs while driving up utility prices.
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AI → automate → prices
This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day.
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This → start → day
So, NBC News took a road trip — over the course of six days and eight stops, three reporters hit some of the most competitive congressional districts to find out what’s driving people’s votes ahead of November.
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what → take → November
This “Drive to Decision Day” covered one-third of the most closely contested House races in the nation and two key Senate races.
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Drive → cover → nation
More election news:
- The Data Dive: Steve Kornacki explains what’s at stake in a crucial Iowa Senate battleground race.
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what → explain → race
- Just five weeks from Georgia’s closely watched gubernatorial race, Keisha Lance Bottoms’ campaign on the airwaves has dwindled.
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campaign → watch → airwaves
Cornell rape accuser’s attorney says the school and law enforcement failed a young woman
The attorney representing a former Cornell University student who said she was raped in 2024 and pressured to take ketamine, accused law enforcement and the school of failing his client.
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she → say → client
The former student alleges that Chi Phi fraternity brothers sexually assaulted her and that one sent a message encouraging other members to participate in the attack.
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one → allege → attack
The fraternity chapter was subsequently barred from campus, but no one was criminally charged.
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one → bar → campus
Thomas P. Giuffra says his client went to the university’s police department after the alleged attack but did not speak with anyone beyond the first person who took her report.
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who → say → report
Officers failed to follow up on key pieces of evidence, including the group chat.
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Officers → fail → chat
Cornell has pushed back on the suggestion that those involved in the incident faced few consequences at the time, saying the Title IX proceedings resulted in a range of sanctions, including expulsions and suspensions.
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proceedings → push → expulsions
The civil suit has prompted Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten to reopen the case and consider whether to bring charges related to the allegations.
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suit → prompt → allegations
He promised to pursue any new evidence “zealously.”
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He → promise → evidence
Senate GOP to press Jack Smith on Trump Jan. 6 probe as DOJ targets investigators
Former special counsel Jack Smith will testify today before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his handling of the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results leading up to the Jan. 6 attacks.
Smith has said he believes a jury would have convicted Trump in the election case had it gone to trial and dismissed notions he was “influenced or directed by the Biden administration.”
Smith, along with other FBI and Justice Department officials, has faced criticism by the president’s allies in the Senate over involvement in past Trump investigations.
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Smith → press → investigations
Last year, the administration launched a so-called grand conspiracy investigation to examine actions taken by federal law enforcement individuals dating back to 2016, which would fall outside the typical five-year statute of limitations for most federal crimes.
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which → launch → crimes
Ahead of a rare execution, lone woman on Tennessee’s death row says “I am at peace”
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I → say → peace
Tennessee is set to execute 50-year-old Christa Pike on Wednesday by lethal injection — the first time in more than 200 years that a state will put a woman to death, according to historical records.
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state → set → records
Knoxville police say in 1995, then 18-year-old Pike and others lured a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to an abandoned steam plant, attacked her and fatally beat her.
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Pike → say → her
The case gained traction after investigators said it was tied to the occult because of a pentagram found carved in Slemmer’s chest.
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it → gain → chest
Pike’s lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution, saying she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from sexual abuse during her childhood.
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she → ask → childhood
Tennessee corrections officials say they would try to fulfill certain requests made by Pike, including using female guards to transfer her and the use of an all-female execution team.
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they → say → team
Pike, who has been on the state’s death row for over three decades, doesn’t dispute her role in the killing.
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who → dispute → killing
In a letter to NBC News, she said that she is at peace whether her clemency is granted, saying, “I am only nervous about the process.”
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I → say → process
Staff Pick: Why lawmakers are scrambling to save a National Archives facility
A family friend from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up, asked if I had heard about the plan to shut down a National Archives facility there and move thousands of historical records important to the Asian American community out of California.
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I → scramble → California
So during a recent trip, I sat down with Rep. Kevin Mullin, a Democrat who’s been leading the fight against the move, and a local genealogist who frequently does research there.
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who → sit → research
They told me the facility houses old immigration, court and other records stored there from the 1898 Chinese Exclusion Act, Angel Island Immigration Station and the Japanese American incarceration during WWII.
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facility → tell → WWII
There are even documents from the Supreme Court’s landmark Wong Kim Ark decision, which established that a child born to foreign parents on U.S. soil is an American citizen.
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child → be → soil
The National Archives and Records Administration has said the closure of this facility and others will reduce the agency’s real estate footprint and save money as it moves to digitize records.
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it → say → records
But opponents argue it’s critical that descendants of people who are in these records have access to them, and that many of these AAPI families still live nearby in the Bay Area or California.
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many → argue → Area
It’s a fascinating issue, and one that I plan to continue to watch.
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I → ’ → that
— Scott Wong, senior congressional reporter
Read All About It
- From Buffalo to Brazil, one nail-biting finish after another defined Sunday’s slate of NFL action.
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finish → read → action
Here’s a look at the dozen games that turned Week 3 into one of the wildest in NFL history.
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that → ’ → history
- Three counties along Florida’s Gulf Coast have declared states of emergency as locally acquired cases of dengue fever surge to unprecedented levels.
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cases → declare → levels
It was only a matter of time before the Tampa Bay area had a dengue outbreak of this magnitude, experts say.
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experts → have → magnitude
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
