Super Tuesday, Dartmouth, and Tumbleweed Takeover

Super Tuesday Results

Voters in 15 states and the US territory of American Samoa headed to the polls yesterday on what is known as Super Tuesday, the single biggest day of primary voting in the presidential election cycle. 

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won almost every race, continuing on their trajectory toward becoming the 2024 presidential nominees. As of this writing, Biden has secured roughly 79% of the 1,968 Democratic delegates needed to pass the threshold, and Trump has secured roughly 87% of the 1,215 Republican delegates needed, per projections. See live updates here.

Meanwhile, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won Vermont's GOP primary, while businessman Jason Palmer won American Samoa's Democratic caucus. Separately, seven states included an "uncommitted" option or similar, following a movement in Michigan to protest Biden's response to the Israel-Hamas war.

In other races, Rep. Adam Schiff (D, CA-30) and former baseball player Steve Garvey (R) emerged from California's "top-two" primary, beating out Rep. Katie Porter (D, CA-47) as leading candidates to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D). In North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) and state Attorney General Josh Stein (D) will face off to replace Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who is term-limited.

Dartmouth Athletes Unionize

The Dartmouth men's basketball team voted to unionize yesterday, the latest step in challenging the long-standing amateur model of college sports. The 13-2 vote means the players will be allowed to negotiate on issues like compensation and working conditions, including practice hours. Dartmouth has until March 12 to file an objection to the union.

Last month, the National Labor Relations Board ruled the players are employees of the university after the varsity players submitted a petition in September to the NLRB requesting to unionize. Dartmouth filed motions last week to ask the NLRB office to reconsider its ruling.

The union vote comes amid a broader effort to cut back restrictions on compensation for student-athletes. The NCAA has historically barred college athletes from receiving compensation beyond scholarships (athletic scholarships are banned in the Ivy League) and some related costs of education. The NCAA proposed in December a new subdivision that would allow some schools to enter into name, image, and likeness deals directly with their students.

Bitcoin Surges (Then Drops)

The price of bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, reached an all-time high of $69,210 yesterday before retreating. The digital asset has risen nearly 200% year-over-year after sinking as low as $13K in November 2022 amid the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Observers attribute the surge to new investor-friendly exchange-traded funds of the coin as well as to a much-anticipated halving event next month that will lead to an expected drop in the bitcoin supply.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency built on secure blockchain technology and has a market value of roughly $1.35T. Bitcoin "miners," who use energy-intensive computer rigs to identify the next coded block in the chain, receive rewards via new bitcoin—currently 6.25 BTC (how mining works). The amount of this reward has halved every four years, in accordance with the protocol initiated by pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Read Nakamoto's white paper here.  

Roughly 94% of all bitcoins—out of 21 million—have been produced so far. Analysts predict the coin will be fully mined by 2140.

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