Good morning, and a quick reminder to set your clocks back early Sunday morning following Halloween festivities. In today’s edition:

• 🗳️ Alaska name blame game
• 🎖️ Pentagon fires general amid reported leaks
• 🐕 Wanted: $20/hr robot-dog walker

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.43-minute read (1,178 words).

Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here for free.

"Nothing can dim the light that shines from within."

–Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

Strategists connected to Alaska’s Democratic Senate candidate, Mary Peltola, spent months recruiting a challenger with the same name as incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan in an apparent effort to draw support away from the Republican candidate, according to a New York Times investigation (share link) published Wednesday.

The findings follow a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration last week seeking to potentially delay certification of Alaska's Senate election results over concerns about voters confusing the two candidates.

What the NYT investigation found

The plan began in summer 2025, when a Peltola campaign staffer was instructed to search voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan, per the NYT.

• The campaign’s effort, which reportedly included discussions with Peltola campaign lawyers and the campaign arm of Senate Democrats, also explored recruiting other candidates in hopes of drawing votes away from the Republican incumbent.
• Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, told the NYT that a political consultant for super PACs aligned with Peltola agreed to help arrange outside spending to support the candidates they hoped would draw away GOP votes.
• Rios also said Peltola wasn't directly involved in the effort but was "definitely aware" of it.

Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have denied involvement.

The findings have prompted further scrutiny. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered an investigation into the matter yesterday, while the Justice Department issued additional grand jury subpoenas and House Republicans launched a separate probe.

Federal prosecutors are reportedly exploring possible charges involving a conspiracy to violate voters' rights, while President Trump has called for Peltola to be prosecuted and removed from the ballot.

Where's the line?

Recruiting spoiler candidates to draw votes away from political opponents is generally legal, and both major parties have employed the tactic in the past. In Alaska's 2024 House race, for example, Republicans backed an effort to keep another Democrat on the ballot against Peltola, despite that candidate being incarcerated in a New York prison.

Some legal experts argue that the federal government has no grounds to challenge Alaska’s election results, since the state Supreme Court has already ruled that the second Sullivan can appear on the ballot with extra documentation to show which Sullivan is the GOP incumbent.

On the flip side: Critics argue that deliberately recruiting someone with the same name as an opponent is a step further than past examples, and explicitly designed to mislead voters and undermine election integrity.

• Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has condemned the alleged effort as an attempt to manipulate the election, while AG Todd Blanche accused Democrats of trying to win votes through voter confusion rather than policy.

Big picture: Alaska is one of several key battleground states in the battle for control of the Senate, with Democrats needing to gain four additional seats to take the helm for the next two years. RealClearPolitics' polling average shows Peltola leading Sullivan by just 1.2 percentage points, though the surveys were all conducted prior to the NYT’s explosive reveal this week.

📊 Flash poll: Which best describes your opinion of Democratic strategists running a candidate with the same name as the GOP incumbent in Alaska’s Senate race?

• Deceptive election manipulation
• Fair-play political gamesmanship
• Unsure/other

You’ve moved the couch three times. Put up art and bought new lamps. Even considered the direction of the wind. But the room just doesn’t look done.

Before you rearrange the furniture again, take a look at your windows. The right blinds and shades can bring a whole room together.

Blinds.com makes it easy to find your fit, with custom options for every window, free samples delivered to your door, and free expert design help whenever you need it. For a limited time, get a free measure ($50 value), too. And if the fit’s ever off, the SureFit Guarantee means they’ll remake your order for free.

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

🍿 The average movie length for films given a wide theatrical release has grown from 106 to 114 minutes between 1980-2025, per an analysis of 36,431 movies by researcher Stephen Follows.

✈️ Airfares rose by 22% year over year in September, marking the 10th straight monthly increase in the government's airfare price index, which hit a new all-time high last month.

🏫 Enrollment at K-12 public schools totaled 48.8 million students in the 2025-26 school year, down 3.7% from 2017-18, reflecting how annual US births have fallen off since peaking in 2007.

🤖 Prices for AI tokens, a basic unit of usage, have fallen to ~59 cents per million tokens as of last Friday, down ~35% since the end of June.

⚾ World Series champion Milwaukee Brewers, who led the MLB with a franchise-record 103 regular-season wins, finished the postseason at 11-2, tied for the 3rd-best win percentage in the Divisional Series era (since 1995).

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US GDP grew at a 3.4% annualized pace in Q3, adjusted for inflation, above economists’ expectations of 3.2% and up from 2.2% growth in Q2; consumer spending, which accounts for over two-thirds of GDP, grew at a 3.8% annual rate.
• 📊 Earnings corner: Amazon reports lower-than-expected earnings and revenue, sending shares down ~7% in extended trading; Intel reports better-than-expected Q3 earnings and revenue but issues weaker Q4 guidance, with shares falling ~17% after-hours; Reddit beats expectations for Q3 earnings and revenue and says it will require all users to create official accounts for access, with shares down 15% after-hours.
• 🔤 Alphabet shares close down 12.4% in first day of trading since latest earnings report, marking its worst-ever one-day loss by both percentage and market cap ($482 billion).

SPORTS, MEDIA, & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🙏 Patrick Stewart, renown stage and film actor who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, died at 86.
• 🏈 Nearly 75% of former NFL players who died between 2008-23 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts, per a new Boston University study. | Chicago Bears acquire 3x All-Pro DT Jeffery Simmons from the Titans in trade that sends two 1st-round picks to Tennessee.
• 👮 Hayden Panettiere’s death ruled accidental, with police officially closing their investigation following the actress’ August passing.

Looking refreshed shouldn't require layering on more makeup than you actually need. MERIT's The Minimalist gives you the freedom to use as much or as little coverage as you want.

Its breathable, light-to-medium coverage lets your natural skin show through, with fatty acids to help lock in moisture. It's Sephora's #1 foundation stick in the US, worn by Cameron Diaz, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kristen Bell. With one sold every 10 seconds, it's become a makeup bag staple for a reason.

SCIENCE, SPACE, & EMERGING TECH

• 🤖 People who rely on AI to solve simple problems do worse at, and are more likely to give up on, similar tasks when that AI assistance is removed, new study shows.
• ☄️ Odds that life first came to Earth via comets from space carrying prebiotic chemicals is highly unlikely, pegged at “a one-in-a-million occurrence,” per new analysis of 100,000 simulations.
• 🎗️ Younger patients with colon cancer generally have a more aggressive form of it that’s more resistant to treatment compared to older patients, new study finds.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• ⏰ Daylight Saving Time bill that would make year-round DST permanent is unlikely to receive a vote in the Senate before the end of this year, per new report.
• 🏛️ Federal investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN.) "is focused in part on whether she entered into a sham marriage in 2009 to help a man suspected of being her brother obtain a green card," per new NY Times report.
• 🪖 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fires three-star general Brett Sylvia, who reportedly admitted to leaking classified information about Ukraine and Iran to journalists.

☝️You're looking at Gerrothorax maritimus, a 30-inch-long, armored amphibian that lived on the ocean floor ~237 million years ago. Researchers recently discovered two nearly complete skeletons of the creature in China, marking the first known evidence of an amphibian species that lived in the sea full-time.

🤔 Did you know? The little pocket on the front of your jeans was originally introduced in the 1870s to hold a small pocket watch.

📰 Worth a read: Inside the $311 million land grab to create one of America’s priciest homes.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Wanted: robot-dog walkers at $20/hour.
• The simple changes that actually improve your sleep
• 7 US cities with seriously spooky reputations

25 DONUT readers get a free lab water test… KETOS gifts a $255 Complete Homeowner kit to the first 25 readers, shipping included. Results cover 35+ parameters that your water company tests only occasionally. Missed out? Save 20% still. Claim your test here.

1. A movie theater sells 85 tickets for $12 each. How much money does the theater collect in ticket sales?
2. A jar contains 60 coins, all nickels and quarters. If the total value is $9, how many quarters are in the jar?
3. A digital clock displays 12:21 PM. What is the next time it will display that reads the same forward and backward (ignoring the colon)?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

📣 The World Town Crier Tournament took place last month in England, where 25 competitors from eight countries donned their best period attire to shout their way to victory. Each contestant delivered three cries—one about their hometown, another promoting a retail sponsor, and a third about their hotel accommodations. Performances were judged on vocal power, clarity, showmanship, and audience engagement.

1. $1,020
2. 30
3. 1:01 PM

Like starting your morning with The DONUT? You can support the writers who make it happen. Totally optional, always appreciated.

Made it this far? Let us know what you think:

👍 👋 👎