The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times are no longer doing something Jessica Alba and Hulk Hogan have already done—endorse a candidate for President of the United States.

The change in tradition for the two esteemed newspapers was ordered by each outlet’s billionaire owner—Jeff Bezos of WaPo and Patrick Soon-Shiong of the LA Times told their respective editorial departments to kill opinion pieces set to endorse Democratic nominee Kamala Harris over the GOP’s nominee, Donald Trump. (WaPo CEO William Lewis said he killed the endorsement, not Bezos.)

The prevailing thought is that the motivations of Bezos and Soon-Shiong were less about remaining neutral and more about avoiding upsetting Trump in case he wins in November:

• On the day it was revealed the Post wouldn’t endorse Harris, Trump was seen glad-handing executives from Bezos’s space company, Blue Origin. And despite Lewis owning the decision, a New York Times report said Bezos was hesitant to endorse a candidate as far back as September.
• In the case of the LA Times, Soon-Shiong said in a statement that the editorial board refused to comply with his request for a pros and cons list of each candidate. His daughter, Nika Soon-Shiong, said the family decided as a unit not to endorse due to the US’ role in the war in Gaza. A spokesperson for her father denied the claim.

The influence wielded by ownership resulted in resignations—Washington Post columnists Robert Kagan and Michele Norris along with LA Times editorials editor Mariel Garza left their outlets.

Saying nothing says a lot: The consensus among critics is that presidential endorsements don’t move the needle much this late in the game, since most voters have already made up their minds. But this might undermine future endorsements for local elections (which both outlets have recently made), Garza argues, because readers can’t be sure if ownership is influencing the content, as it did in this instance.—DL

Gavin Newsom wants to keep Hollywood in Hollywood. California’s governor proposed more than doubling the state’s tax incentives for movie and film production from $330 million per year to $750 million to reverse the entertainment industry’s exodus from its historic hub. As more US states and foreign countries lure filming crews with tax breaks, entertainment production in the greater LA area dropped 5% in Q3 from a year before, which is a shocking decline given that last year twin strikes had frozen Hollywood activity, according to a report from FilmLA. The higher tax incentives, which are expected to be approved by the State Legislature, would go into effect next July.

Delta sues CrowdStrike over July outage. The airline, one of CrowdStrike’s clients, was affected by the faulty software update from the cybersecurity company that caused global computer outages this summer. Delta said that over the span of five days, it had to cancel 7,000 flights, impacting 1.3 million passengers and costing it $500 million in losses. Previously, CrowdStrike said that Delta refused offers of help following the update and that it’s unclear why it fared so much worse than other airline customers. Over the weekend, CrowdStrike said Delta’s lawsuit against it “reflect[s] a desperate attempt to shift blame for its slow recovery away from its failure to modernize its antiquated IT infrastructure.”

Washington Post says Elon Musk worked illegally in the US. The outlet said it obtained interviews with “former business associates” as well as court records and documents that prove the serial entrepreneur stayed in the US on a student visa even after he decided not to enroll at Stanford. Legal experts the WaPo spoke to said Musk would have needed to leave the country upon not enrolling. Instead, he co-founded the software startup Zip2. But investors in the company expressed concerns. A member of the board at the time was quoted as saying Elon and his brother Kimbal’s “immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the US.” In response to the investigation, Musk said on X, “I was in fact allowed to work in the US.”—HVL

Justice is a dish best soft-served cold.

Thanks to a ruling by the US Copyright Office on Friday, you’re less likely to encounter a broken McFlurry machine starting today. The government agency exempted the machines from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), allowing restaurants to hire a third party to fix commercial equipment with digital locks—including the perpetually busted ice cream machines at McDonald’s.

What does ice cream have to do with copyright law? Great question.

• The machines’ software is copyrighted work; the DMCA states that only the manufacturer of such equipment can bypass the digital locks to provide maintenance.
• Now, franchise owners can hire outside help to fix the machines instead of waiting on the manufacturer, Taylor, to send one of its technicians, ending a monopoly on the repairs.

An independent company named Kytch created a device to aid in maintenance back in 2020, but Taylor warned McDonald’s franchises to stop using them. The legal dispute between Taylor and Kytch is ongoing, as is the work of McBroken, a website that tracks broken ice cream machines (nearly 15% are down nationally).

Who are the heroes? The petition was filed jointly by iFixit and the nonprofit Public Knowledge, which have earned similar victories for Xboxes, tractors, and smartphones.

The ruling also applies to medical equipment. You’ve probably never associated a McFlurry machine with a ventilator, but they both have those digital locks in common. So, not only can third-party repair services now legally fix that life-saving machine that keeps you going when you need it most, they can also fix ventilators.—DL

A magnificent start to peak earnings season: Five of the Magnificent Seven will be among the 181 companies reporting their earnings this week. Alphabet is in the Mag Seven leadoff spot on Tuesday, Microsoft and Meta step to the plate on Wednesday, and Apple and Amazon rounding out the lineup and this baseball metaphor on Thursday. These companies account for almost 25% of the S&P 500, which is up 40% over the past year and not far off its record closing number from earlier this month. With this, Friday’s jobs report, and the approaching election, it could be a volatile week in the markets.

We are almost one week away from Election Day: It’s nearly time to say goodbye to the political ads that have appeared during every commercial break for the past couple of months. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump will make their final push for undecided voters this week. Trump is scheduled to hold rallies in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada; on Tuesday, Harris will speak at the same location where Trump addressed supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the attack on the Capitol and is expected to denounce her opponent’s fitness for office.

Clocks are going back an hour this weekend: Daylight saving time is once again ending to create a monthslong window where it’s dark when you leave for work and dark when you’re on your way home. On Sunday at 2am ET, we will turn our clocks back our clocks will reset themselves and our microwaves will either be right or wrong until we move the clocks ahead in March. All this disruption to our lives, and most studies show that clocks going back an hour has a minimal impact on conserving energy.

Everything else…

• Friday’s jobs report is expected to show an underwhelming increase in payrolls due to two hurricanes and a work stoppage at Boeing. Despite this, forecasters expect the Fed to slice another quarter-point from interest rates when they meet in early November.
• Apple will release iOS 18.1 today, which will include Apple Intelligence.
• The World Series shifts to New York starting tonight. The Dodgers hold a 2–0 lead against the Yankees in the best-of-seven series.
• Halloween is on Thursday, but if you’re doing October right, it has lived in your heart all month long.
• Diwali—the Hindu festival of lights, takes place on Thursday and Friday. Pennsylvania recently became the first US state to recognize Diwali as a holiday.
• The New York City Marathon is happening on Sunday. Here are the perks runners receive (besides the alleged runner’s high).

Apparently, those ceaseless texts from political candidates asking for donations are working. The WSJ reported that when the dust settles next Tuesday, an estimated $15.9 billion will have been spent on all US federal election races, a record that narrowly eclipses the $15.1 billion dished out on 2020 campaigns.

The cost of campaigning for two years reveals a huge disparity between the US and other industrialized democracies, where candidates hustle to earn votes for weeks, not years.

• During their six-week campaigns in Britain this summer, Keir Starmer raised $12.3 million on his way to becoming prime minister. Opponent Rishi Sunak received only $2.5 million.
• Meanwhile, Kamala Harris raised $300 million in her first two weeks atop the Democratic ticket after replacing Joe Biden and has raised $1 billion overall. Trump’s campaign has raised $800 million.

According to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign spending, 23 Americans donated more than $1 million for a total of $58.9 million in 2004—this year, the number has swelled to 408 who have given more than $1 million for a total of $2.3 billion.—DL