<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Hollis Johnson</div></div></div>Mercedes-Benz changed the luxury-SUV market in 1998 with the M-Class. Never before had the automotive world seen a vehicle with such ruggedness, civility, and performance wrapped in Mercedes-Benz packaging.But only recently did the German brand go all in on SUVs. Mercedes-Benz now offers six SUVs/crossovers for sale in the US, with a seventh model arriving early next year. At the bottom of the range is the entry-level GLA crossover; the venerable G-Wagon is perched atop the lineup.The vehicle leading Mercedes' SUV revolution is its new compact GLC crossover. The GLC debuted late last year as the replacement for the boxy GLK crossover (and, yes, we know the whole "GL" nomenclature is confusing - we actually have a chart stuck to the wall to make sense of it). Although the GLK was an appealing vehicle, it could never quite successfully go toe-to-toe with rivals Audi and BMW.Things have changed with the arrival of the GLC. In 2015, the Mercedes GLK and early-production GLC models accounted for 5.7% of the US market for compact luxury SUVs. In 2016, GLC sales surged more than 71.6%. Mercedes-Benz recently dropped off this 2016 CLC300 4Matic test car clad in a groovy matte "Magno Dakota Brown" paint job for Business Insider to drive (matte-finish cars are something of a trend now). Though the 2016 GLC300 4Matic starts at $40,950, our options-laden test car left the showroom with an as-tested price of $64,530.Photos by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/hollis-johnson" target="_blank">Hollis Johnson</a> unless otherwise credited

This stylish SUV is Mercedes' hot new weapon against Audi and BMW

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Tannen Maury</div></div></div><ul><li>Top American economists from both sides of the aisle see a carbon tax as the most cost-effective way to address climate change.</li><li>In a letter out this week, forty-five of them said climate change was "a serious problem calling for immediate national action."</li><li>But lawmakers remain bitterly partisan on climate action, especially carbon taxes.</li></ul>What do eight recent Republican White House economic advisers have in common with their Democratic counterparts? They think the US needs to tax carbon in order to address climate change. From Janet Yellen to Gregory Mankiw, top economists from both sides of the aisle signed a <a href="https://www.econstatement.org/sign-the-statement">letter</a> published in the Wall Street Journal this week calling for a national tax on carbon emissions, which play a central role in global warming. They said climate change was "a serious problem calling for immediate national action."Co-signatories of the Climate Leadership Council letter included: <ul><li style="font-weight: 400;">Nearly every Council of Economic Advisers chair since the 1970s, more than half of which served Republican administrations</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">Four former Federal Reserve chairs, split between parties</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">Two former Treasury secretaries on opposite sides of the political spectrum</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">More than two dozen Nobel Laureate economists</li></ul>"As the number and stature suggest, you won't find much disagreement among economists," Christopher Knittel, an energy economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of carbon taxes. "In fact, the only real disagreement is among policymakers."The policy outlined in the letter would increase the cost of products and services that use carbon, which the economists called "the most cost-effective lever" to reduce emissions at the scale and speed they said was necessary. While that would mean higher fuel and electricity prices, those funds would be redirected to Americans in the form of dividends. It is estimated that a $40 per ton carbon tax would amount to a $2,000 per family rebate, Yellen told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/17/this-is-not-controversial-bipartisan-group-economists-calls-carbon-tax/?utm_term=.aaea0b39ba54">Washington Post</a>. But for all of the consensus among economists, a carbon tax is still one of the most politically polarizing issues around. Lawmakers have failed to pass such a policy even at state levels, despite <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html">decades</a> of research showing climate change poses catastrophic risks to the planet."It is misleading for CLC to say their carbon tax plan has political viability when that is not the case at all," said Thomas Pyle, a Trump campaign advisor and president of the Institute for Energy Research, a think tank that supports fossil fuels. He pointed to Washington state's recent rejection of a carbon tax proposal, though it contrasted with national plans in not being revenue neutral. The state ballot initiative also faced a more than $31 million campaign led by oil industry donors who argued it would hurt the economy. "Without that industry onslaught, the carbon tax referendum there would probably have passed," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse <a href="https://medium.com/senator-sheldon-whitehouse/taxing-carbon-emissions-c0fb3ff79698">said</a> in December. Richard Schmalensee, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush, said depolarizing carbon taxes would start with congressional acceptance of scientific findings. Many Republicans in office have downplayed the threat of global warming, also rejecting the widespread consensus that humans contribute to it. "Among lawmakers the division is not on that proposition but, rather, on whether climate change is actually a serious problem," Schmalensee said. "In other countries the center-right wants to do less than the center-left, but outright denial of hard science seems, sadly, to be a U.S.-only phenomenon. I can remember when it was Republicans in DC who insisted on following the science." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/29/opinion/sunday/republicans-climate-change-polls.html">Recent polls</a> suggest the number of Republicans who believe climate change exists could be on the rise. But GOP lawmakers have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/just-a-lot-of-alarmism-trumps-skepticism-of-climate-science-is-echoed-across-gop/2018/12/02/f6ee9ca6-f4de-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.9fef4a5409d5">continued</a> to take tones similar to President Donald Trump, who during his presidency has shrugged off a series of landmark reports on global warming."President Trump is sui generis in many ways, so it is hard to predict his behavior," said Gregory Mankiw, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush and a co-signatory of the letter. "But I think the broader political class will over time recognize the importance of the issue, and once they do, they will see the carbon tax and dividend plan as the best response to a pressing problem."Now Read:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-report-us-economy-will-lose-hundreds-of-billions-2018-11">The Trump administration released a dire new report on climate change that predicts hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-report-scary-conclusions-and-reason-for-hope-2018-11">12 scary takeaways from the climate report the Trump administration dropped on Black Friday - and one reason for hope</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-world-expensive-middle-class-2018-12">Disney World is getting so expensive that it's pricing out the middle class</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

A huge number of economists agree we need a policy to fight climate change - but lawmakers aren't getting on board

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Hollis Johnson</div></div></div>Mercedes-Benz changed the luxury-SUV market in 1998 with the M-Class. Never before had the automotive world seen a vehicle with such ruggedness, civility, and performance wrapped in Mercedes-Benz packaging.But only recently did the German brand go all in on SUVs. Mercedes-Benz now offers six SUVs/crossovers for sale in the US, with a seventh model arriving early next year. At the bottom of the range is the entry-level GLA crossover; the venerable G-Wagon is perched atop the lineup.The vehicle leading Mercedes' SUV revolution is its new compact GLC crossover. The GLC debuted late last year as the replacement for the boxy GLK crossover (and, yes, we know the whole "GL" nomenclature is confusing - we actually have a chart stuck to the wall to make sense of it). Although the GLK was an appealing vehicle, it could never quite successfully go toe-to-toe with rivals Audi and BMW.Things have changed with the arrival of the GLC. In 2015, the Mercedes GLK and early-production GLC models accounted for 5.7% of the US market for compact luxury SUVs. So far this year, that number is way up, to 9.1%. Through April, the GLC has outsold both the Audi Q5 and the BMW X3 by a significant margin.Mercedes-Benz recently dropped off this 2016 CLC300 4Matic test car clad in a groovy matte "Magno Dakota Brown" paint job for Business Insider to drive (matte-finish cars are something of a trend now). Though the 2016 GLC300 4Matic starts at $40,950, our options-laden test car left the showroom with an as-tested price of $64,530.

This stylish SUV is Mercedes' new weapon against Audi and BMW

BMWThe 2018 BMW X3.On Monday, BMW unveiled the all-new 2018 X3 SUV at its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Since its introduction in 2003, the X3 has developed into one of BMW's most important models. Now, BMW has rearmed with an all-new third generation X3. Once upon a time, success for a German luxury brand required a world-class compact sedan. Fortunately for BMW, the 3-Series has been the gold standard in a category for the better part of four decades. These days, things have changed. The entry point into the German luxury is no longer through sedans, but rather through compact SUVs. This is reflected in the fact sales of the 3 Series has been in persistent decline for years while the X3 has experienced double-digit growth even though the second-generation model has been around for better part of a decade. Hence the importance of having an adequate rival to Audi's new Q5, Mercedes' CLC, and Porsche's Macan. BMWSo what's new with the X3?First, the third generation model gets all new sheet metal with same design language as the smaller X1 and larger X5. At the same time, BMW has improved the X3's aerodynamic properties with better-regulated air flow around the car using active grille shudders, underbody cladding, and a rear spoiler. Underneath its skin, the X3's chassis has been re-engineered to reduce unsprung mass and its wheelbase extended to reach perfect 50-50 weight distribution. BMWPower for the base X3 will come from a 248 horsepower, 2.0 liter TwinPower turbocharged inline-four-cylinder engine. Mated to an eight-speed automatic, BMW claims the X3 can make the sprint to 60mph from a standstill in 6.0 seconds and reach a top speed of 130. Higher grade X3s can opt for a 3.0 liter, 335 horsepower turbocharged inline-six-cylinder unit. In performance "M" spec, BMW says the new X3 can the 0-60 mph run in just 4.6 seconds and hit a top speed of 155 mph.Inside, the cabin, the X3 gets the latest goodies from BMW's high-tech bag of tricks. This includes a larger, full-color heads-up display as well as a 10.25-inch touchscreen running the latest version of BMW's iDrive infotainment system. In addition, the X3 gets BMW's gesture control technology that will allow passengers to answer phone calls and adjust the volume of the radio with a wave of the hand or twirl of the finger. BMWThe new X3 also get BMW's latest driver's assistance and crash prevention technology. This includes adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, cross traffic alert, and frontal collision mitigation. Official pricing for the 2018 BMW X3 will be announced at a later date. The third generation is expected to hit US showrooms in November. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bmw-ces-transportation-vehicle-car-bmwi-inside-future-2017-1">BMW just showed off the futuristic interior of its next-gen cars</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

BMW's all-new X3 SUV is ready to battle Audi and Mercedes

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nine states held a mix of presidential, congressional and other down-ballots on Tuesday, June 2, the biggest election day yet since the coronavirus pandemic began and an important test for November.</li><li>Several states, like Michigan, Montana, and Iowa have been able to smoothly transition to massively scaling up their absentee and vote-by-mail systems.</li><li>But other states and cities, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, and D.C., failed to ensure every voter could cast a ballot despite ambitious efforts to encourage everyone to vote by mail if possible. </li><li>Voters in all three places reported not receiving their mail-in ballots in time, getting incorrectly printed or confusing ballots, and facing long lines, often with heavy law enforcement presence nearby, at crowded city polling locations. </li><li>"Pennsylvania voters faced unnecessary hurdles to the ballot at every turn in this primary election," a <keyword id="43546" type="EVENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Voting">voting</keyword> rights advocate said.</li></ul>If the June 2 elections were a stress test for November, many states and cities exposed glaring failures, with millions of absentee ballots not reaching voters in time, ballots being incorrectly printed or containing errors when they did reach voters, and others who did not get ballots in time despite risking their health to wait in long lines at polling places.Nine states held a mix of presidential, congressional and other down-ballots on Tuesday, June 2, the biggest election day yet since the coronavirus pandemic began and the first large-scale test run in some states of preparing for November elections. To be sure, many states have been able to scale up to holding elections smoothly and with great success. But Tuesday shows that this kind of large-scale shift in a country where the majority of voters are used to voting in-person on election day presents may challenges.Montana, which already has high levels of mail-in voting, sent every voter a mail-in ballot for their Tuesday primaries and saw exceptionally high turnout for a primary in a pandemic, <a href="https://www.voteathome.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2020-Primary-turnout.pdf">with 63% of voters returning their ballots.</a>Iowa, which sent out an absentee ballot application to every registered voter on Tuesday, set a new record for voter turnout in June elections. "We have surpassed the all-time turnout record for a June primary, with more than 487,000 ballots cast &amp; more still coming in," Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, <a href="https://twitter.com/IowaSOS/status/1268027779372761088">wrote on Twitter</a>. "The previous high in Iowa was 449,490 in 1994. My hats off to Iowa voters, poll workers and county auditors. Awesome job."In the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, which all held presidential and down-ballot primaries on Tuesday, a similar pattern emerged: state officials made ambitious efforts to encourage all voters to cast ballots by mail if possible, but struggled to meet the massive demand for mail-in ballots.Then, voters who didn't receive ballots at or didn't get them in time to mail in had to risk exposing themselves to COVID-19 voting in person, often waiting in long lines to vote at understaffed and crowded polling places and in some cities, feeling intimidated by heavy police or even National Guard presence brought in to control crowds in cities like D.C. and Philadelphia. <div type="image" title="People wear masks as they wait in line to vote at a voting center during primary voting in Washington, Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)" height="2736" width="5472" msid="76235424" hostid="261"></div><h2>The mismanagement of elections in D.C. and Maryland are prompting hearings, investigations, and calls for officials to resign</h2>In Washington, DC, the confluence of the immense strain of the pandemic and civil unrest in the city led to confusion about where to vote, long lines, and confusion about whether voting would violate an emergency curfew, leading to an election <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/dc-election-curfew-police-long-lines.html">that Slate called "an unmitigated disaster"</a> with Politico describing one polling station as <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachMontellaro/status/1267972235337310209">a "failure of democracy." </a>Before coronavirus struck the nation's capitol, D.C. allowed all registered voters to vote by mail without an excuse and elect to do so permanently.In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the District strongly encouraged voters to request mail-in ballots for the June 2 presidential and city council primary elections while drastically reducing the number of open polling places from the usual 144 vote centers that would ordinarily be open to just 20. But D.C. had significant problems with scaling up their mail-in voting as 92,000 voters requested ballots, a massive increase from the 7,321 D.C. residents <a href="https://electionresults.dcboe.org/election_statistics/2016-Primary-Election">who voted by mail in the 2016 presidential primary</a>.Both media outlets <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/voters-report-difficulty-getting-mail-in-ballots-for-dcs-tuesday-primary/2020/06/01/cfc78bda-a3fe-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html">like the Washington Post</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/CM_Silverman/status/1267950476810760192">several city councilmembers</a> reported hearing from thousands of D.C. voters — including many who requested ballots far in advance — that they did not receive their ballots at all or until the day of the election. In addition to the drastic reduction in polling places, the protests against police brutality and the resulting massive influx of federal law enforcement presence led the city to impose a curfew of 7 p.m., despite the fact that polls didn't close for another hour until 8 p.m. Voting rights advocates immediately expressed concern with the city imposing a curfew before polls closed. The non-partisan Campaign Legal Center <a href="https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/June%202%202020%20CLC%20Letter%20to%20Mayor%20Bowser%20.pdf">wrote a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser's office</a> warning that the conflicting messages would confuse many would-be voters into thinking they couldn't go out and cast a ballot, in addition to voters not having a clear way to identify themselves to law enforcement while traveling to and from the polls. As the letter noted, the polls closing after curfew combined with a heavy law enforcement presence in the city would disproportionately affect black voters, who were more likely to live in council wards with lower rates of absentee ballot requests. While the mayor's office sent out a cell-phone alert to all D.C. residents on the day of the election clarifying that essential workers and people in line to vote would be exempt from the curfew, voters in multiple different wards of the city <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/dc-election-curfew-police-long-lines.html">reported being reprimanded by law enforcement for being out past curfew. </a>"The problems that we warned of in our letter, unfortunately, did come to pass," Ravi Doshi, senior voting rights counsel at the CLC, told Insider in a Thursday phone interview. "Having law enforcement near a voting site is quite obviously intimidating to voters and it can very well dissuade voters from exercising their fundamental right to vote. It's exactly why we thought it would be problematic for a curfew to be imposed before voting ends." Maryland, which held its June 2 primary elections almost entirely by mail by sending every registered voter a mail-in ballot, also experienced numerous problems in getting correct ballots out to voters and processing them on the other side, the <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/elections/bs-md-ci-rutherford-calls-on-lamone-to-resign-20200603-4gxpb2jzuba6bnxxyuxexawd44-story.html">Baltimore Sun</a> reported. Maryland and SeaChange, the vendor the state used to provide their mail-ballots, pointed fingers at each other for problems and mix-ups <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/elections/bs-md-pol-ballots-vendor-20200529-ybrayxk5rfcwzpoepy7pmxeocq-story.html">that delayed the arrival of 333,000 Maryland ballots</a> and led to some <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/after-charleston-absentee-ballots-found-in-maryland-sc-considers-cutting-ties-with-printer/article_1da1a578-9ad8-11ea-a600-d3ff845d1c9b.html">being mistakenly sent to South Carolina, which uses the same vendor. </a>Not only did some Baltimore and Montgomery County voters not get their ballots in time, leading to some areas opening <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/elections/bs-md-pol-ballots-vendor-20200529-ybrayxk5rfcwzpoepy7pmxeocq-story.html">new polling places and ballot drop-boxes at the last minute</a>, but voters reported receiving ballots with <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/dc-maryland-voting-coronavirus-pandemic/65-1a3b3d88-1dea-4017-b390-a77a9185cfaa">the wrong election date</a> and <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-election-ballot-congress-7th-district-20200415-tt6tnszoujdttbxm6t3bz6zehi-story.html">incorrect postage instructions.</a>And on the night of the election itself, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/elections/bs-md-pol-vote-canvassing-begins-20200604-bxvmnntogrbndjjtfoy5kzmlwq-story.html#nws=true">a printing error for ballots sent to residents of one Baltimore City Council district</a> meant that the ballots themselves could not be immediately processed, and the results had to be taken offline and completely redone over the next few days. Like D.C. and other big cities, the problems with Maryland's execution of an all-mail election that drove voters who didn't get their ballots in time went to go vote in person in Baltimore, which also had fewer polling places and ballot drop-boxes open to voters than normal. The myriad problems in both places led to unprecedented calls for investigations, hearings, and the top election officials in Maryland, Baltimore, and D.C. to step down for their positions, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/tuesday-is-election-day-in-dc-though-much-of-the-voting-has-already-happened/2020/06/01/f9738568-a437-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html">the Washington Post</a> and <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/elections/bs-md-ci-rutherford-calls-on-lamone-to-resign-20200603-4gxpb2jzuba6bnxxyuxexawd44-story.html">Baltimore Sun</a> reported.Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford, for example, called for Linda Lamone, the administrator of the Maryland Board of Elections who has served in the position since 1997, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/elections/bs-md-ci-rutherford-calls-on-lamone-to-resign-20200603-4gxpb2jzuba6bnxxyuxexawd44-story.html">to be fired or step down from the position. </a>In addition to calling for D.C. Board of Elections Chair Michael Bennett to step down (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/voting-problems-in-dc-maryland-lead-to-calls-for-top-officials-to-resign/2020/06/03/24b47220-a5a8-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html">he told the Post he would not</a>), multiple councilmembers are <a href="https://twitter.com/CM_Silverman/status/1268311635837370368">asking for independent audits</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/charlesallen/status/1268256957233856517">are already scheduling hearings</a> into what went wrong. But voting rights experts like Doshi said that while the unprecedented civil unrest and heavy federal law enforcement presence threw a wrench into election day in some cities, many of the stumbles plaguing D.C.'s election were ultimately avoidable. "The broader picture here is that Tuesday's problems in D.C. weren't exclusively related to the curfew overlapping with election day," Doshi said. "A lot of these issues arose from COVID-19 and the fact that the city was underprepared to hold an election during the pandemic."<div type="image" title="Marty Goetz, right, and Diane White, prepare the voting screens as they start to set up a polling place Monday, June 1, 2020, for the voting for Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary in Jackson Township near Zelienople, Pa. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)" height="1500" width="3000" msid="76235428" hostid="261"></div><h2>'We saw a variety of failures on Tuesday'</h2>Despite weeks to prepare, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had all the makings of the perfect storm <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/06/03/voting-problems-after-pennsylvania-primary-in-2020/">for a chaotic election day. </a>The state, which held its first-ever election with no-excuse absentee voting both during a pandemic and with heavy law enforcement presence in some major cities over the George Floyd protests, received 1.8 million absentee ballot requests, with county election officials struggling to meet the volume and thousands of voters not receiving ballots in time. But <a href="https://allvotingislocal.org/press-releases/voting-rights-leaders-pennsylvania-officials-must-prepare-now-for-the-november-election/">in a Thursday press briefing</a> hosted by several Pennsylvania-based voting access professionals, advocates expressed frustration and disappointment that after Pennsylvania having over two months to prepare for the election after postponing its primary from April 28 to Tuesday, so many voters were still disenfranchised."While it is laudable that Pennsylvania officials processed almost 2 million mail-in ballot applications, they fell short fulfilling their obligations to democracy," Scott Seeborg, the Pennsylvania State Director of advocacy group All Voting is Local, said. "Pennsylvania voters faced unnecessary hurdles to the ballot at every turn in this primary election."At the last minute on Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/20200601-EO-Deadline-Extention.pdf">issued an executive</a> order extending the deadline for absentee ballots from voters in Philadelphia and five other counties that reported problems with voters not getting their ballots on time to arrive, allowing them to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive by 5 p.m. on June 9."Even in ideal circumstances, which this was not, we knew there would be a steep learning curve," Sara Mullen of the Pennsylvania Civil Liberties Union said, adding, "It wasn't a surprise to find out that we heard of a lot of complaints from voters that they were not receiving ballots at all or received them too late."In Delaware County, which includes the suburbs immediately southwest of Philadelphia, Mullen said that the county was forthright in admitting that it sent out 6,000 mail-in ballots to voters the very day before the election on June 1 and failed to get ballots out to 400 voters who requested them. Mullen said that thousands of voters in York and Allegheny counties did not receive ballots at all despite requesting them weeks in advance, describing Montgomery County's election administration as a "comedy of errors," including people getting ballots for the wrong party in the primary, people not receiving ballots at all due to their apartment numbers being cut off on the envelope, and some containing confusing instructions. The police clashes with protesters and the COVID-19 crisis made voting an extra risky and frightening proposition for voters belonging to marginalized communities, said Erin Kramer, the executive director of advocacy group One Pennsylvania. "What we saw were consolidated polling locations in black communities that did not allow for social distancing, combined polling location staff that were not trained on how to work together, and in communities that had seen...a National Guard presence or local law enforcement armed with riot gear, people were asked to exercise their franchise in that context," Kramer said. "We saw a variety of failures on Tuesday."As Doshi of the Campaign Legal Center also pointed out, Pennsylvania and especially the counties that have extended absentee ballot arrival deadlines, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/05/key-swing-state-sweats-vote-counting-fiasco-304203">are still counting ballots from many elections</a> — a pattern Americans can expect to see more of throughout this year and in November. "In certain states, we don't have results for certain elections yet. That's something that we can expect to happen when you have this surge in absentee voting," he said. "Mail-in ballots are going to take a little bit longer to count. And so it doesn't indicate anything nefarious. It just indicates there's a good reason why it might take longer to get results."<div type="image" title="Pennsylvania elections" height="1000" width="2000" msid="76235433" hostid="261"></div><h2>November doesn't have to be a repeat scenario if officials act now</h2>In a Wednesday hearing before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Rights, election officials and voting rights activists expressed dismay at how some of Tuesday's elections unfolded."In 46 states and the District of Columbia, all voters have a right to request a mail-in ballot," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said. "But as we saw yesterday, that right is implemented with varying degrees of effectiveness. This need is particularly acute in...historically disenfranchised communities where distrust in government is high."Both in the hearing and in a May 20 interview with Insider, Benson emphasized that the coronavirus crisis doesn't have to be a catastrophe for elections, and that Michigan and other states prove with the right preparation and planning, elections can still be secure, and run smoothly in a pandemic.In May 5th's local elections in Michigan, the state sent out absentee ballot requests to every voter with ballot-tracking, trained new election workers, invested in high-speed ballot processing machines to make the vote-counting process faster, and provide personal protective equipment to keep election officials and poll-workers safe. Myrna Pérez, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice's Democracy and Voting Rights program, <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/how-protect-2020-vote-coronavirus">said there are several concrete steps states can take in advance to ensure every voter can cast a ballot</a>, including increasing funding to state and local election administrators, but given the many complex issues that popped up on Tuesday, they have to start acting now."It is indeed possible..to ensure our elections this fall are safe, accurate, and secure," Benson said, adding, "Educating voters about choices and rights is the job of chief election officers."

Long lines, missing mail-in ballots and confusion this week exposed the problems that could plague the November election

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">REUTERS/China DailyWang Yirong of Hebei province rides his motorcycle in a desert during the China Taklimakan Rally and CCR Xinjiang Station, in Shanshan, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region May 31, 2014. </div></div></div>LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - World shares were within touching distance of an all-time high on Monday, spurred on by the potent combination of record low global interest rates and the improving health of major economies.
European markets .FTEU3 were on the front foot again, looking for their 10th straight week of gains after last week's bumper set of easing measures from the European Central Bank. .EU (Full Story)
Asian stocks earlier touched their highest levels in nearly three years, while Wall Street ESc1 was expected to start steadily, having notched another record close on Friday following bright U.S. jobs data.
MSCI's All-World share index .MIWD00000PUS, which encompasses 45 countries and is generally seen as benchmark of global stocks, was up 0.1 percent at 426.77 points, just below its 2007 pre-financial crisis peak of 428.63 points.
It has now risen almost 150 percent since the 2009 lows of the crisis but with central banks like the ECB still hosing markets with cheap money, Peter Sullivan, HSBC's head of equity strategy in Europe, said the rally was likely to continue.
"We might be sitting close to all-time highs but valuations are not stretched," Sullivan said. "We got more confirmation last week (from the ECB) that policy is going to remain very loose for a long time."
"In the U.S. it's clear that earnings are coming back pretty strongly and there are even signs of life now in Europe... So you put that together and it's certainly more likely that equities rise rather than fall from here," he said.
Trading was thinner than usual due to public holidays in a handful of countries including Germany and France, but the strong appetite for risk in the region was hard to miss.
Spanish and Italian bond yields ES10YT=TWEB IT10YT=TWEB, a proxy for what their governments pay to borrow on financial markets, were at all-time lows with Spain enjoying lower yields than the United States. US10YT=RR. GVD/EUR
Safe-haven gold XAU=, meanwhile, was stuck near a four-month low and market volatility indicators such as the so-called VIC fear gauge .VIX remained heavily subdued.
<h3>EMERGING DEMAND</h3>
Emerging markets were also performing strongly with stocks .MSCIEF on the cusp of a one-year high and a number of key currencies on the rise.
The South Korean won KRW=KFTC touched a near six-year peak although intervention by the foreign exchange authorities capped its upside, while Malaysia's ringgit MYR=MY hit a near seven-month high. EMRG/FRX
Among major currencies, the dollar .DXY continued to benefit from rising U.S. Treasury yields, after U.S. jobs data on Friday showed employment back at its pre-recession level.
The euro drifted down to $1.3615 as the dust settled after last week's ECB frenzy of activity, though there was plenty of daylight between it and its $1.3502 low. (Full Story)
Weekend trade data from China also supported the view of a recovering global economy, with exports gaining steam last month. But the same figures also contained some cause for concern, as a surprising drop in imports could herald weaker domestic demand. (Full Story)
China's yuan CNH= rose after the People's Bank of China unexpectedly fixed its daily midpoint higher against the dollar for the second straight session, which in turn also gave a lift to other Asian currencies. (Full Story)
<h3>RISING U.S. YIELDS HELP DOLLAR</h3>
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR shuffled up to 2.6131 percent during the European morning, climbing from Friday's U.S. close of 2.597 percent and well above 11-month lows plumbed last month.
Treasuries tend to set the benchmark for borrowing costs around the world, and their rally this year has baffled many economists, who had predicted the U.S. economy would perform more strongly and therefore expected a sell-off in the bonds.
"The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries may need to sustain a move back above (the) 2.6 percent area to increase the likelihood of the greenback move through the 102.80 level against the yen," Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, said in a note to clients.
For now, the dollar had to be content with a slight gain on the day to buy 102.44 yen JPY= having had some help in the Asian session from a lower-than-expected current account surplus in Japan's April data.
In commodities, U.S. crude CLc1 and Brent oil LCOc1 gained about 0.3 and 0.2 percent to $103.02 and $108.83 a barrel respectively, underpinned by the solid jobs report that in theory should translate to higher oil demand.
Spot gold XAU= was steady near a four-month low at $1,255 an ounce, while Shanghai copper fell to its lowest in nearly a month and London copper also dropped, unsettled by concerns that a probe into metals storage at China's third-largest port could squeeze financing and buying in metals.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Twaronite; Editing by John Stonestreet)

World Stocks Near All-Time Highs

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="REUTERS/Tyrone Siu" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/560ef640bd86ef16008bf084-960/rtxzf5z.jpg"></a>REUTERS/Tyrone Siu</div></div></div>Returning to work while continuing to breastfeed is a challenge for many new moms - especially considering the horror <a href="http://kuow.org/post/slideshow-lactation-rooms-around-seattle-and-beyond">stories we hear about inadequate lactation rooms</a> and employers that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/woman-alleges-her-fight-to-breastfeed-at-work-got-her-fired-2013-9">resist providing the breaks needed to pump, as required by law</a>.But a select few employers are taking another approach&#xa0;and championing an unusual perk that could make the burden of pumping at work much easier for people who need it.Going on a business trip that takes you thousands of miles away from your family makes the task of providing fresh breast milk for a new child exponentially more difficult for breastfeeding moms.As Twitter's VP of diversity and inclusion, Janet Van Huysse, explained to Business Insider, difficulties for traveling new moms include having to leave a new baby at home, figuring out how to continue pumping between meetings, and having to deal with the logistics of going through TSA checkpoints with breastmilk or figuring out how to ship breastmilk home.Twitter hopes to ease the transition back to work by offering free breastmilk delivery for nursing mothers on business trips through <a href="http://fedexcoldshipping.fedex.com/">FedEx's cold shipping program</a>.Van Huysse says the company first announced the perk as a pilot program to 1,500 salespeople during its annual global sales conference at headquarters in July. Nine mothers signed up at the conference for the service, and the idea was so well-received - some mothers called it "game-changing," Van Huysse says - Twitter now offers the service to all its global employees."It wasn't one of those benefits where we were looking at what kind of reach it would have," she says. "It was more about impact."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Reuters" title_caption="EY was one of the first major companies to offer breast milk shipping for its employees." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/560f0abdbd86ef1c008befe4-960/rtr435lr.jpg"></a>ReutersEY was one of the first major companies to offer breast milk shipping for its employees.</div></div></div>"It really hits at a time when women are thinking about the tradeoffs they're making with their career and family, and so anything that our industry or other industries can do to make women stay in the workforce and support the choices they're making I think is a good thing," Van Huysse says. She says that the program is such a no brainer she can't believe more companies aren't offering it yet.Tax and professional services firm EY led the charge back in 2007, when it started providing a breast milk shipping benefit with <a href="https://limerickinc.com">Limerick</a>, their lactation consultants. EY provides moms with a travel kit that includes an insulated cooler with ice packs, baby bottles to store the breast milk, and a shipping box that the cooler fits snugly into, and the firm pays to have the breast milk express-shipped home, Maryella Gockel, EY Americas flexibility strategy leader, tells Business Insider.According to Limerick's data, EY will have provided 600 breast milk travel kits to 100 moms in the US this year. EY also provides a hospital-grade breast pump to each new mother at the firm and assigns a case manager, who is a registered nurse and certified lactation consultant (CLC), to consult with before returning to work."As part of EY's flexible and inclusive culture, we are committed to providing our women with the tools and resources they need to be highly effective in their <keyword id="6354910" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Careers">careers</keyword>, while at the same time helping them meet their personal goals," Gockel says. "New moms who continue to nurse are faced with their share of challenges returning to work. Offering a workplace lactation program, including breast milk shipping for moms, can alleviate some of the stress of returning to work after childbirth."Other companies like <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/26/accenture-ship-breast-milk/">Accenture</a>, <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/07/13/ibm-ship-employee-breast-milk/">IBM</a>, and Zillow have followed EY's lead by offering similar programs to employees."We implemented free breastmilk shipping after one of our employees, who was traveling for work, had trouble getting through airport security with the milk she had pumped during her trip," Katie Curnutte, Zillow Group's vice president of communications and public affairs tells Business Insider. "Coming back to work as a new parent is challenging enough, and we wanted to do everything possible to support our employees and their families, and take away some of that stress."Sadly, these programs are a stark contrast to the conditions some breastfeeding moms have reported facing upon their return to work at other companies.<div></div><a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title29/pdf/USCODE-2011-title29-chap8-sec207.pdf">According to the Affordable Care Act</a> passed in March 2010, an employer with 50 or more employees must provide reasonable break time for an employee to provide&#xa0;breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child's birth each time she needs to, and break time need not be compensated. Also, the employer must provide a place, other than a bathroom, for the employee to breastfeed.&#xa0;This isn't always the case.Katrina Alcorn, a Web consultant in Oakland, California, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-02-07/working-moms-need-more-than-subsidized-breast-pumps">told Bloomberg</a> her company didn't have a lactation room, so she sat in a toilet stall to pump and stored her breast milk in the office fridge. "Once, a co-worker sent an e-mail to the entire 40-person office complaining about the 'bodily fluids' in the refrigerator," she says. "It was tempting to give up breast feeding altogether."Natasha Long, who worked at a factory in Booneville, Mississippi, was back to work three weeks after having her third child, Jayden, in 2012. As she told investigative journalist Sharon Lerner, her factory didn't have a lactation room, so she would run to her truck during breaks to pump breast milk. "She sat in the cab, worried that someone might see her, and pumped, while tears rolled down her face and over the plastic suction cups attached to her breasts," <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/article/18151/the-real-war-on-families">Lerner wrote of Long's experience.</a>And last year, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/24/breastfeeding-pumping-at-work_n_5610554.html">the Huffington Post's Dave Jamieson</a> investigated 105 cases filed&#xa0;with the US Labor Department as part of a Freedom of Information Act request for investigations into nursing-mother complaints. Only closed cases between March 2010 and late 2013 were reviewed.As Jamieson reported, The Labor Department's cases shared some clear patterns: many women were forced to pump&#xa0;in the bathroom at work, customers or colleagues often walked in on women relegated to common areas when their breasts were exposed, raising an issue often created tension with supervisors, women said&#xa0;they weren't allowed enough time to pump, and when they were allowed to take a break, it was only when they weren't busy.Gina Ciagne, a certified lactation counselor and global vice president of healthcare relations at <a href="https://www.lansinoh.com/about">Lansinoh</a>,&#xa0;says that a lot of this&#xa0;oversight isn't necessarily intentional, and employers&#xa0;often aren't aware of a breastfeeding mother's need to pump privately and consistently until it's an issue. Consequently, the burden often falls to mothers to figure it out. "That's just not fair," she says."Can you imagine hiring someone and saying, 'Yea, OK, you're going to have a family? Great. You're actually going to have to go eat in the bathroom. That's where we eat our lunch.' That's literally what it's like, because she's preparing her baby's food," Ciagne&#xa0;says.According to Ciagne, babies typically feed every two to three hours, and so a mother needs to pump accordingly. It takes up to a half-hour each time a woman pumps, she says. Breastfeeding, she explains, is a supply-and-demand operation; the body needs regular stimulation to keep up with the needed output, and when a mother misses a feeding, her body receives the message that it can produce less milk. "It's a labor of love, with more focus on the labor part," she jokes.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Wikimedia Commons" title_caption="Would you eat your lunch here?" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/560f0be1bd86ef19008befd2-960/11_innelan_care_home_(3981398623).jpg"></a>Wikimedia CommonsWould you eat your lunch here?</div></div></div>Both mothers and children benefit from breast milk, <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/breastfeeding-state-laws.aspx">according to the National Conference of State Legislatures</a>. Breast milk contains antibodies that protect infants from bacteria and viruses, which results in&#xa0;fewer ear, respiratory, urinary tract infections, and, not surprisingly, fewer health care visits, prescriptions, and hospitalizations.Breastfeeding also helps mothers&#xa0;return to pre-pregnancy weight earlier and reduces the&#xa0;risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer and osteoporosis. According to <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/2013breastfeedingreportcard.pdf">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>, about&#xa0;77% of mothers start breastfeeding immediately after birth, but only about 16% of those moms are breastfeeding exclusively six months later. A woman's return to work overwhelmingly plays a role in this decrease."Mom needs to figure out how to pump, she needs to figure out her schedule, she and her partner need to figure out the childcare, and all of that stuff is individually a little overwhelming, but when you put it all together it really will challenge your reality and make you realize that you have a lot to juggle and figure out,"&#xa0;Ciagne says."Breastfeeding moms have that additional layer of learning how to pump, pumping, leaving enough of that milk behind, and reconnecting with that baby when they get back from&#xa0;work," she says.Ciagne says it's&#xa0;about time employers caught up and really understood that valuing families and supporting women&#xa0;has societal, health, and economic benefits. Stepping up the benefits and&#xa0;figuring out the logistics to make life easier for new moms just makes sense, she says."I think it's amazing that some companies are understanding that, finally," she says.

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