REPUBLICANS won two special elections on Tuesday to fill two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives (Shutterstock).

For the first time in two decades, a Republican candidate has taken back a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Democrats in California.

In a special election on Tuesday, Republican Mike Garcia defeated his Democratic opponent Christy Smith for the open seat in the 25th Congressional District in Los Angeles.

The seat had been held by Democrat Katie Hill, who had resigned after a sexual scandal, according to the Associated Press.

Although Garcia was the likely winner with 56 percent of the partially tallied vote, the two will meet again in November for the general election.

In Wisconsin, Republican state senator Thomas Tiffany defeated Democrat Tricia Zunker in the special election to fill the 7th District House seat, according to Fox News. Democrats had hoped to flip the district in a state that had gone to President Donald Trump in 2016 by less than a point.

PAUL MANAFORT

Manafort released from prison

Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, was released on Wednesday from a federal prison in Pennsylvania to home confinement because of worries he might catch the coronavirus.

According to NBC News, Manafort’s release complied with most federal prison guidelines for release to his home. except for time served on his sentence.

Now 71 years old, Manafort has served a little over a year of a seven-and-a-half year sentence after being convicted on charges of tax evasion and violating federal lobbying laws.

Wisconsin court nixes “stay-at-home” order

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the state’s “stay-at-home” order. The court ruled that the administration of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had gone too far in extending an earlier order to May 26.

Wednesday’s ruling came on a lawsuit filed by the state legislature –  with Republican majorities – and argued that the order was “unlawful” and “unenforceable,” according to CNN.

STOCKS fell again on Wednesday (Shutterstock)

World stock markets are still wary of future

Wall Street and other stock exchanges continued to react with pessimism on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The Dow Jones Average dropped 2.17 percent, and the S&P 500 fell by 1.75 percent. The Nikkei (Japan) exchange stayed even, but the FTSE (Great Britain) was down by 1.51 percent.

Rising government debt and falling consumer spending are believed to influence the market.

Worldwide deaths approach 300k

The number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus worldwide is up to 295,671, according to the Johns Hopkins University monitoring of COVID-19 statistics on Wednesday.

Of that total, 83,791 are attributed to the United States, with United Kingdom/Great Britain next with 33,263, followed by Italy with 31,106.

Total confirmed cases are 4,336,973 worldwide. Of those, 1,388,936 are in the United States, followed by Russia with 242,271 and the United Kingdom/Great Britain at 230,985.

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